#and the DRAMA and the STORY i was some sort of a rebel in a very vaguely fantasy kingdom | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

charliemwrites · 3 months

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I had a BRAIN BLAST on the way home today. So!

In the category of Readers Who Get To Do What They Want:

(CW for dark Simon, johnny, and “reader” with unhealthy relationship dynamics, gaslighting - not from who you suspect - and threats of violence)

A pair of identical twins who are basically opposites from birth. Twin 1 is obviously favored by their parents for being the “easy” twin that tries to appease them and keep the peace. Twin 2 a little hellion from birth, they think this kid is basically broken. Try to test for psychopathy but nope, their own kid has just picked up on the accidental favoritism from birth and just seems to dislike their own parents. But they still love their twin.

The twins grow up as complete opposites. Different social circles, hobbies, interests, clothes, attitudes. They’re incredibly close, but twin 2 will (and has) gotten violent on twin 1’s behalf because their parents are raising them to be “well behaved”.

By teen years, twin 2 is being sent to the countryside most summers to be handled by the grandparents. (Jokes on them, farmlife is nice and the grandparents aren’t exactly strict - mostly because twin 2 actually likes them and doesn’t see much need to rebel).

Meanwhile twin 1 is doing summer programs and learning arts, developing this intense aversion to conflict and has trouble standing up for themself. Especially without twin 2 there to lean on.

Come university, their parents insist on twin 1 staying close by for uni, essentially make the choice for them. Twin 2 decides to ship out of the country and plans on breaking off all contact. (Maybe due to some sort of unforgivable drama at the grandparents’ funeral?)

Before leaving, twin 2 gives twin 1 a burner phone with one number programmed in. Promises that if twin 1 ever needs to disappear, to be free of it all, they can call and twin 2 will be there in a heartbeat with bolt cutters for those chains. And then they just sort of… disappear.

Twin 1 doesn’t see them for *years*. Never uses that phone but keeps it.

So twin 1 lives their quaint pre-determined life with their acceptable job and it’s all mostly okay. Not bad at all. Quiet, if lackluster.

And then Simon comes along. Simon, who takes one look at this little angel and decides they have to be his. Theyre too good, too soft, unable to take care of themselves properly in this big scary world. And after all he’s suffered, doesn’t he deserve something sweet to protect? And hell, Johnny could use a kind touch every now and then too.

So he “seduces” twin 1 (aka, the dark!Simon move of just deciding someone is his and acting like it whether they like it or not). Manipulates them into stepping right into their own collar and leash, with him at the other end.

It’s too late by the time Twin 1 realizes what they’ve become - this man’s pretty pet. An agreeable little doll for him and his teammate to play house with. It’s not always bad, but it’s suffocating and scary. They feel trapped; they are.

It takes months until they get enough privacy to dig the old phone out of the place they nearly forgot about it.

Twin 2 picks up on the third ring.

In the intervening years, twin 2 has gotten into all sorts of trouble and mayhem. Become the demon their parents always accused them of being. Has, somehow along the way, joined up with KorTac and gotten all their files scrubbed. “Twin 2” no longer exists to the world at large. Nothing that anyone, even Kate Laswell, could dig up.

They get the call from their twin and break their contract on the spot. Get on a flight within hours. Sneak their twin out of the homey prison they’ve been locked up in.

Take twin 1 to a sunny, public cafe and get the story through their sibling’s nervous stuttering. Gets angrier and angrier with the more they hear, eyes fixated on the thin leather collar around their twin’s throat.

“Please just… I know it’s selfish and I’m sorry, but-”

Twin 2 already has a plan. They have a quiet, cozy cabin with comfortable funds in a rural part of Canada. Twin 1 will go there, rest and recover and be free. Twin 2 will take their place with Simon and Johnny to throw off suspicion and searches.

The scars from living the life they have? No worries. twin 2 will stage a car accident, reopen some of them to make it seem legit. Lie about head trauma to account for any lapses in their twin 1 act.

It’s decided within three hours. Twin 2 sends their sibling off to the airport and sets everything into motion. They’ve been dying to do something like this for years, after all the times their sibling stuck by their side and tried to stick up to them, to no avail.

Twin 2 instantly hates that fucking collar. Lets Simon put it on but not without the most dark look at the wall, thinking of all the ways to break his hands. Fingers twitching by their side.

The boys sit them down to watch scary movies because they always think it’s fun to spook twin 1 and fuck them while they’re all tense and shivery and but twin 2 is just watching, almost bored. Makes a few attempts to fake jump but keeps forgetting because all their focus is on not slamming a hand into someone’s dick for grinding on them.

Pretends to be asleep in the big bed they’ve been herded into when they kick Johnny or Simon off in the middle of the night. Purposefully aims for soft spots and bruises.

They try to act like twin 1 for a bit but the persona is so difficult to keep up when every little condescending comment from Simon or Johnny makes them want to start stabbing. The inside of their mouth is all torn up from biting onto their cheek and running their tongue over their teeth to resists snarling and snapping.

One day they’re going to snap… and it’s going to be so good to see these bastards bleed.

#cod #thoughts™️#my writing #fanfiction #dark fic #twin!reader #twin 2 reader #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #themboss really

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hammysamhah · 3 months

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hello peoples i’m about to sound real crazy right now but hear me out cus i’ve been thinking this for awhile now while binge watching TBGO and Trollstopia and i need to know your thoughts!! and buckle up folks cus this is gonna be a LONG post

so okay basically, i think that in the shows Guy Diamond has some sort of generational trauma/ daddy issues/ faced parental neglect or however else it can be phrased.

this theory is only show specific and i don’t know if i sound crazy for thinking this AND i know i’ve made a post similarly about this except with Dareth from Ninjago but i actually have some real evidence this time to back up this theory/headcanon

look, this theory started off as kind of a joke at first after watching TBGO episode: “Trolly Tales 3” where Guy is seen telling a bunch of children a story based off of the nursery rhyme about jumping over a candlestick.

the story is seen with Guy as the main character, wanting to pursue a life of entertainment involving jumping over candlesticks. Sky Toronto, whom is Guy’s dad in this story, doesn’t agree with this lifestyle and insists he starts thinking more seriously and be part of the company. Guy rebels and pursues his dream anyway, but in the end it fails after the candlestick drops Guy and becomes a solo act. Guy, now at his lowest, goes back to his dad’s and tells him he’s ready to be serious. Sky responds to the statement that he has seen Guy’s shows and that he doesn’t want Guy calling him dad anymore, but to instead call him his #1 fan. it was a small but sweet twist there at the end where the dad accepts the son in the end.

now i didn’t really give much thought to the story until i saw the way Guy reacted when the kids didn’t like it. now i’ll make it very aware that i very much know Guy is just super dramatic (they even acknowledged that in the scene i’m mentioning rn), BUT as someone who loves to overanalyze cartoon characters and expressions, he kind of looked genuinely hurt. he was also fairly offended when poppy said his story was too dramatic.

mentioning again that i know Guy is just a drama queen but i like to overanalyze stuff like this

now after i noticed these details, i jokingly remarked that it seemed like Guy took the dislike of his story personally, as if that was a semi-true story. like as if something like that did happen to Guy when he was younger and he twisted the story to fit the nursery rhyme. i don’t think that Sky Toronto is his actual dad, there’s too much proof that shows they don’t have any personal connection like that. but i do think that whoever his dad really was did push him the same way Sky did in the story. and that maybe Guy twisted the ending to be happy when in reality it probably didn’t have his dad accepting him and loving him for who he was.

now everything i have been talking about is all just speculation. there’s no real proof that this story isn’t anything more than just a story. BUT!!! by overanalyzing it is what made me realize that Guy being neglected in some way by his dad (or mom if he has one) would make some sense considering his personality.

Guy is very reliant on being the center of attention, he doesn’t like the idea of anyone being better than him and just has some confidence issues in general (at least in TBGO). there are many episodes centering around this. this is even stated in Guy Damond’s wiki.

now, attention seeking is a very common occurrence in people that were neglected as a child. his attention seeking and huge ego are both things that show signs of trauma or neglect as seen below

this is just a slice of what i have in store though because i think that this ties into the way he parents Tiny Diamond in Trollstopia.

Guy and Tiny have a few episodes centered around their relationship, they’re all pretty heartwarming and a little sad (while also being funny because the show’s a comedy). these episodes have a pretty similar moral which is “i’ll love you no matter what” and i feel like there’s a reason they all pretty much have this moral and it’s to show how Guy is growing as a character and parent.

let me just summarize these episodes i am thinking of realll quick for ya

Extra Tootering (s1 ep 12a): Tiny wants to learn how to glitter fart like his dad to impress his friends, Guy tries to teach him how but it doesn’t work. time comes where Tiny is meant to show his friends his trick and ended up faking it so no one could know he couldn’t do it. feeling guilty for his lie, he runs away and Guy finds him and tells him that whether he can glitter or not he and his friends will still love him the way he is.

Dad-urday (s2 ep 1b): Tiny thinks of his dad as his hero and Guy doesn’t wanna do ANYTHING that could ever break that image, so Guy participates in Dad-urday events that he hates just to make Tiny happy, only in the end to find out that Tiny will always view Guy as his hero even if he can’t do all the typical dad things that others can do.

Funder Construction (s7 ep 5a): Guy tells Tiny about how their family has a legacy of building extraordinaryly cool blanket forts and unintentionally pressured Tiny into feeling that he needs to make his own super impressive fort or else he won’t be considered a Diamond, Guy immediately comforted and reassured Tiny that no matter what he accomplishes in life he’ll always be a Diamond because he’s his son and that he’ll love him no matter what.

now let me break down these episodes a bit more to show you how i think it could prove Guy has parental trauma and how it plays into how he parents now.

for Extra Tootering, there’s this specific scene that spoke to me. when Tiny tells his dad that he wants to learn how to glitter like him, Guy tells him that he was also a late tooter and that Tiny should be patient, as it comes with time. but then Tiny starts saying that he’ll just hide his true self away until then. when Guy heard his son say those things, he was tearing up and even freaked out a little literally shouting a dramatic “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” and he immediately decided that he was going to help his son learn to glitter fart despite his earlier statement that Tiny should be patient.

now i know the topic being about farting glitter makes this feel so unserious but that isn’t gonna stop me from overanalyzing it LOL

the main thing i noticed was how upset that Guy was when Tiny started talking about hiding himself from the world. Tiny was wanting to hide himself because he couldn’t glitter like Guy could. Guy didn’t wanna be the cause of his son hiding himself!! any parent would be upset in this situation. but if i consider my past point of that story Guy told back in TBGO, where the dad didn’t want his son to be himself, being a real thing that Guy could’ve gone through, Tiny wanting to hide himself could very much upset Guy!! not just for the basic reasons of wanting your child to be happy but also because he doesn’t want Tiny to go through what he went through.

later on when Guy finally finds his runaway son, this interaction plays out:

(direct quotes from the ep)

Guy: “don’t you see? i love you just the way you are! we all do!”

Tiny: “but you’re my daddy, daddy! you have to say that.”

Guy: “…you’re right, Tiny. i guess because i’m your father, in a way, i do have to say it.”

and the way Guy said that last sentence just felt interesting to me. the pause before he said it, and using the words “i guess” made it feel like he never really got that treatment from his own father ? ofc i could just be grasping at straws there a lil bit but it’s what i’m thinking.

now by the end of the episode Tiny has learned how to glitter and used it to save himself, his dad, and friends from falling to death lol— but what Guy says to Tiny afterwards was very sweet.

(direct quote from ep)

Guy: “TINYYYYY! HAHA! you did it! YOOOOU did it!!! for the record, i’d still love you if you couldn’t, but i’m glad to not be dead.”

i just like how Guy specified that he still would’ve loved Tiny either way. this doesn’t directly lead any points to my theory other than maybe Guy feels the need to make sure Tiny absolutely knows that he’ll love him no matter what. but any parent should feel that way about their child. i just really thought the moment was sweet and worth a mention.

now onto the next episode, Dad-urday, and let me tell you this episode probably spoke to me the MOST when it came to defending my theory.

for the entire episode Guy was stressing over disappointing his son. Tiny thinks of Guy as his hero, and Guy doesn’t want to do anything that could ever shatter that thought and make Tiny think less of him. so he and Tiny participate in a thing called Dad-urday, where all the dads in Trollstopia do a bunch of stereotypical dad things (like grill, play catch, fish, stuff like that). but Guy isn’t good at those things, so he goes to his friends for help and this interaction pursues.

(direct quotes from ep)

Synth: “Tiny’s gonna love dad-urday! he thinks the world of you and what-not!”

Guy: “exactly! Tiny thinks i can do anything! but tomorrow he’ll realize i can’t, and i just don’t want my little boy to lose his hero…”

Guy is seen here putting so much pressure on himself for no reason! he should know that Tiny would love him despite his lack of ‘dad’ skills, but he’s convinced himself that if he isn’t perfect and amazing at everything then his son will think less of him. this is totally rooted in Guy’s confidence issues and probable parental neglect i think.

so Guy forces himself to do typical Dad-urday things (with the help of his friends) to make sure not to disappoint his son. but things go wrong when Guy has to participate in a boating event to which he gets into a dangerous position. at this point Guy’s friends finally told Tiny the truth and Tiny immediately just wants his dad to get out of the danger he’s in leading to this interaction

(direct quotes from the ep)

Tiny: “daddy! your daddy friends already told me everything! you gotta get out of there!”

Guy: “b-but— this isn’t how i wanted this to go, Tiny! you’re my little boy! and i want you to keep on believing i can do anything! so you don’t lose your hero!”

the way that Guy sounded so panicked and upset in this scene really hurt. to me it feels like Guy is desperate to not end up being a bad dad, he wants to be someone his son can look up to and to be the first person he goes to if there’s a problem. i really think this shows that Guy never had a good role model himself, as he doesn’t understand that he doesn’t need to do all the things he’s making himself do in order to achieve this goal.

this mindset even had Guy forget that Tiny already knew he’s not perfect, as Tiny pointed out he already knew he’s not capable of everything and specified about when Guy tried to build his bike and failed, which made Guy finally remember. Tiny then proceeded to list a bunch of other things about his dad that aren’t the most charming, like his bald spot, or his fake calves lmao

anyways the next bit of dialogue here seems pretty meaningful

(direct quotes)

Tiny: “there’s only one reason you’re my hero, daddy…. *BECAUSE* you’re my daddy!”

Guy (tearfully): “…really?”

the fact Guy was crying in this scene just showed how touched he felt that he didn’t actually have to be perfect to be a good dad. and that he already was one. the mere fact that being his dad made Tiny think of him as his hero definitely made him realize he was doing a good job. he needed to hear that after all the pressure he put on himself earlier.

now onto Funder Construction, which is a pretty big one too cus they actually talk about their family in this episode!

this could potentially put a little dent into my theory since Guy is the one who talks about them and he didn’t seem like someone who didn’t like his family. but i might just put it as he didn’t wanna have his child worry about it. i mean Guy is an actor in the show, it wouldn’t be too crazy for him to ignore his feelings for a minute and talk a little kindly about their family’s legacy to inspire Tiny, because Guy did play a fair part in it after all.

now to put it simply this episode hurt my heart so bad 😭 Guy’s parenting in this episode is so good it hurt. Tiny found an interest in making blanket forts, so Guy tells Tiny about how making blanket forts runs in the family and that they’ve all made huge creations out of them. and now Tiny wants to do the same.

Guy supports Tiny throughout the entire thing until Tiny starts rushing it and the fort becomes unstable. by then Guy is begging Tiny to stop but Tiny is consistent on getting it done. then the tower starts wobbling over with them on it and they fall off the side! luckily they were able to hold onto some loose blankets but they still were in a very unsafe position. and even then, still Tiny is consistent about finishing this fort and thus, this interaction pursues:

(direct quotes)

Tiny: “i have to build something the world has never seen before!”

Guy: “BUT WHY?!”

Tiny: “because if i don’t…i’m not a Diamond.”

Guy: “…not a Diamond..?”

and dude. Guy’s face after Tiny said that. that brief moment of just an emotion change felt like Guy was realizing that he unintentionally pressured Tiny into thinking that if he didn’t build this fort he wouldn’t be considered part of the family. this is the exact thing Guy wanted to prevent Tiny from feeling.

so now continuing the scene, tiny is crying at this point:

(direct quotes)

Tiny: “it’s like you said, ‘every Diamond built structures that would stand until the end of time.’ so, if i don’t do that… how can i be one of them?”

Guy: “…Tiny Diamond. young man, you listen to me, and you listen good, because i have something that you need to hear. first of all, the things the Diamonds of the past did took them their entire lifetimes. if they caught one glimpse of what you’ve accomplished as a child..? it would blow the hair right off their heads!”

Tiny: [smiles and sniffs]

Guy: “and second of all, and way way more importantly, none of that matters! i don’t care if you build a thousand skyscrapers, or if you never touch another blanket again, you are always a Diamond. because you.. are my son.”

this scene is so important not just for Tiny but for Guy too. Tiny is learning once again that his dad will truly love him no matter what. and unlike last time with the glitter fart, (which Tiny was able to achieve in the end), in this episode, Tiny’s plan doesn’t work, but now he’s okay with it. because his dad made him feel less pressured and more loved. Guy Diamond truly said some powerful things to his son. this will most likely be a memory that Tiny will remember forever and that’s such a good thing.

coming back to the theory though, Guy had accidentally made his son feel how his family probably made him feel in the past. maybe not about specifically the blanket tower stuff but possibly something similar or just anything in general. pressure to live up to family values can be traumatic if your family makes you feel outcasted for not living up to it the way they want. and considering i think Guy either got disowned or ran away himself, (solely based on the story he told those children in TBGO), it obviously didn’t end very well.

the fact he made Tiny feel that pressure was probably heart breaking to Guy. and he made sure to immediately make sure Tiny knew he had no reason to feel like that. he became so serious so fast to make SURE tiny didn’t feel out of place in their family.

and that just shows Guy’s development not just from the trauma im theorizing but just in general in the show. Guy was never really the most serious character in this show. i mean, he’s a naked sparkly troll who’s main character trait half the time is farting glitter or being super dramatic in comedic ways. but seeing how serious Guy gets when it’s about his son just goes to show how seriously he cares about him. and that’s how you break generational trauma yall, Guy Diamond mastered it.

so um yeah this is pretty much all i have to say about this theory. i just wanted to show how i thought that Guy didn’t have a good childhood but made sure his son had a great one. really sweet stuff for this mostly unserious show. i know this is probably super dumb but i don’t care i just love dumb things. and if you actually read all of this thanks and here’s a cookie 🍪

#guy diamond #tiny diamond #trolls fandom #trolls world tour #trolls band together #trollstopia #trolls the beat goes on #trolls theory #trolls poppy #queen poppy #trolls synth #i am so serious #make fun of me if you have to #i love guy diamond #he’s the best dad #peppy needs to take notes

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rosewaterandivy · 8 months

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10. a kiss is not enough

Summary: Rumor has it, that hometown hero-turned-teacher Steve Harrington is hot for teacher. The English teacher next door to him at Hawkins High, who also happens to be his childhood friend, that is.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x chaotic!dumbass reader

W.C.: 4.5K

Warnings: No use of y/n - reader goes by the nickname Trouble instead, cursing, sexual situations - SMUT & idolatry (my usual bullshit), real-talk with Nancy Wheeler, idiots still being idiots, Modern!Teacher AU, English teacher reader, History teacher Steve, slow burn, friends to lovers, romance.

A/N: Holy shit, I can't believe we've come to the end (or is it 👀) of this series! When I started this, I had no clue how many people would respond to Trouble and Steve's idiots-to-lovers story - but I'm so glad that they did! This series will always be near and dear to my heart, for a variety of reasons, but primarily for the people it brought into my life (here's lookin' at you, babe!). This isn't a goodbye from Trouble and Steve so much as a see you later - don't hate me too much! Poetry excerpt from John Keats. 18+ mature content (minors dni). Reblogs, comments, and likes are always appreciated, please let me know what you thought; enjoy & thanks for reading! 💜

series masterlist | playlist - newly updated!

Trouble’s playlist from Steve: trouble will find me

Steve's playlist from Trouble: rebel without a clue

previous || epilogue

Now, May, Finals Week

“Just think about it, kid,” Hopper says on his way out your classroom door. He’d requested a meeting during your conference block, when normally he’d amble in under some pretense just to shoot the shit.

You nod, at a loss for words. It’s not like you needed yet another thing on your plate— waiting to hear back from admissions and not spilling to Steve or the gang was bad enough.

Yeah, you’d applied for grad school (even though grad students were the worst) and Hop had been contacted as a reference, which prompted his little visit today. Apparently, the district had approved a stipend and sabbatical for faculty furthering their education in graduate school.

“I’d like to recommend you,” Hop said matter of factly, sitting in a desk across from yours. “Maybe not for the sabbatical until you’re further along in the program, writing your thesis and whatnot.”

“I, uh–” you stumbled to find the words. “Cart, horse. I haven’t been accepted yet.”

He leveled you with a look, “Are you shittin’ me? Of course you’re getting in.”

You swallowed audibly and busied yourself emptying your desk for the summer, “Well, time will tell I suppose.”

“This isn’t—” Hopper paused in thought. “This isn’t about Harrington, is it?”

“Huh,” you nearly yelled, clutching the cardboard box for dear life. You had been so careful too.

He cracks a smile, “I saw the pair of you at graduation, you think you’re so slick.”

That brings a smile to your face, good ol’ Hop sussing out the goings on like he’d never left the force.

“It’s nothing.” You assure him, “We haven’t— We’re professionals, okay?”

“I know,” he nods, voice lowering as if he could spook you. “I’m happy for you, really.”

A small smile breaks across your face, “Yeah, uh, thanks.”

Finals done and grades posted, you’d never been so happy to get home. Had plans to pour yourself onto the couch and not move for 72 hours.

But life (and Steve) had other plans.

He was sorting through the mail, chucking envelopes into various piles on the countertop. The loft was quiet that afternoon— Eddie had a gig in Indy that evening and Robin was crashing at Vickie’s for the night. Steve hummed a tune to himself, the occasional slap of paper hitting the granite punctuating it.

“Oh hey,” Steve turns with a large envelope in hand, “This looks important.” Tosses it with freakish accuracy, the white paper landing with a thwack where your shorts had ridden up against your thigh.

Distracted by whatever drama was unfolding on TV— something about a crew working on chartered private boats— you mindlessly slip your thumb beneath the lip of the envelope and tear it open.

It’s only once you’ve pulled the papers from it that you glance to see what’s what. The university’s crest shines like a beacon, your thumb worrying over the topmost letter. Steve, the bastard, has stopped his mail sorting and turned toward you.

He leans lazily against the counter, a knowing smirk fixed on his lips. You scramble up from the couch with the papers, too nervous to see for yourself. “Here,” you say, thrusting the envelope and documents to his chest. “Can you—”

Pulling you to his chest with an arm, he brushes his lips against the crown of your head. “Sure, honey.” You wrap your arms around him, burying your face into his chest— warm and familiar.

“You know,” he drawls, “The big envelope generally means something good, right?”

“I know,” muffled against his shirt.

He chuckles, hand coming up to cradle your head. Steve clears his throat, reads the opening of the letter in his best announcer voice. “Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that…”

The rest is drowned out by the rushing of blood in your ears, the tears pooling in your eyes breaking free to cascade down your cheeks. He squeezes you tight abandoning the acceptance letter and letting it flutter to the floor in favor of drawing you closer. Steve kisses you, licking your own tears into your mouth, your taste onto your tongue. And it’s so weirdly hot that your heart starts fluttering again, like you’re seeing him for the first time.

Because of course, just as things were going right something had to come and throw a wrench into things.

Plans for lazing in the early summer forgotten, the next few days saw you coming and going from the university campus for orientation, meetings with faculty, so on and so forth. As you were leaving the grad student mixer, a professor peeled off from a group of faculty to flag you down with a call of your name.

You turn, not recognizing them from the English department. She’s an older woman, has maybe a few years on your mother, and is swathed in a lovely linen dress— the cool elegance of minimalist style.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Holland,” she says shaking your hand. “I’m on the admissions committee and was very impressed with your work on Dante Alighieri.”

“Oh, thanks!”

“And you studied Italian as an undergrad?”

“Certo.”

That brings a smile to her face. “Perfetto,” she says with a perfect Italian accent and waves over another faculty member. “I only ask because there’s a summer intensive in Italy beginning next week that I think you’d be perfect for.”

Your mind reels. The new professor introduces himself and echoes Dr. Holland’s sentiments— a summer session of classes in Italy, in partnership with Università di Bologna, the oldest university in operation in the world. Scholarships that would cover the cost of tuition, travel, and accommodations for you to peruse.

What the fuck.

Vision swimming, you somehow come back to the conversation at hand. Dr. Holland presses a folder to your hand, “I know you were planning on taking the introductory grad school courses over the summer, but I hope you’ll consider joining us in Italy instead.”

You nod, gobsmacked and make your way to the car. Settling into the sweltering seat, you start the car and call Nancy. If anyone would know what to say in this situation, it would be her.

“That’s the thing,” you sigh, wine glass in hand as you slump on Nancy’s couch. “We’re not anything, haven’t discussed it. I mean, sure, we fuck like rabbits, but aside from that?”

She blows a raspberry and sips from her glass. “He’s in love with you, get over it.”

You jerk up, “Okay, maybe,” you allow. “But he hasn’t said anything.”

“And you won’t pony up to do it yourself?”

A scoff as you drain your glass. “I’m sorry, have you met me?”

Nancy laughs at that, loud and bright. “Unfortunately, yes!” She refills your glass before continuing, “Let’s be honest, you’re both hopeless when it comes to eachother.” She raises her brow before you can balk, “Full offense intended.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

She hums at that, head cocked to the side in thought. Her nail taps against the glass with a soft clink. A bite to her lips before she heaves a sigh, “Sometimes he just needs a push.”

You narrow your eyes at her. “I am absolutely not telling him he’s bullshit, if that’s what you’re after.”

Nancy, to her credit, winces uncomfortably at the memory. “No, no,” a shake of her head. “Absolutely not, you would never.” She sets her glass down carefully, giving you her full attention. “What I’m getting at is this: do you want to be something with Steve?”

She lets the question hang in the air between you.

“Because if you don’t know Trouble, you should back away now.” A low warning tone. “You’re it for him, have been since he laid eyes on you, but you’re both too scared to do anything about it.”

You drain your glass to the dregs and hastily take your leave. At the sound of the door closing, Nancy grabs her phone and brings it to her ear, “Hey Harrington, I need a favor…”

Returning from a less than helpful hang session at Nancy’s, you find a post-it note left on your bedroom, door that reads ‘meet me at our spot on lover’s lake. - s.’

Prizing it from the wood grain, you make your way back to the kitchen to scavenge for something to eat, in an effort to soak up the remnants of wine in your system. Opening the fridge you spy another post-it stuck to the topmost shelf: ‘get your ass down here, i’ll feed you soon enough. - s.’

With a laugh, you let the fridge door fall shut and grab your keys.

He can see you now, just barley, even in the indigo dark. Wonders to himself, how are you even real? How is it that you’re mine? An explanation that won’t ever come.

You slip into the cool water of Lover’s Lake like a dream, with nary a sound. Steve stumbles after you on the piles of clothing you’d left behind—bunched up denim shorts here, a threadbare tank-top over there, the silk of your thong musky and damp.

Fisting his shirt to pull it up and over his head, it falls to the forest floor behind him, jeans shucked off and tossed elsewhere, boxers joining your lingerie by the shore. His patience is wearing thin as you wade further and further from him out into the lake.

Little minx, he smiles and takes a breath before diving beneath the waves. Arms cutting through the placid water at a quick pace until he’s occupying the space between your bare legs, and coming up for air.

One arm drags you near, lazily pressing you close, tight around the small of your back as the tide breaks around your waist, minute movements almost imperceptible— the slow roll of your hips against his.

Water shallow enough to tread and keep you buoyant. Steve kisses you slow and sweet, pulling you flush against his chest while you writhe under the water’s surface. Body slick and wanton and arching into his own.

His dick jumps when you lift yourself to drape your arms around his shoulders. A sharp breath replaced with a shaky exhale as he brings his forehead to rest on yours, dark eyes taking in the exhilarated flush of your body.

And Steve knows, under his skin and tucked into the cage of his ribs, near the beating of his anguished heart, that you’re the only thing left in this world worth worshipping. To keep you, and render you a flightless bird, to clip your wings, would be all for naught.

He has to let you go again, and so soon after you found him. From perihelion to aphelion before the moon’s full turning. The soft curve of your throat drawn taut as you glance upward, marvelling at the stars and planets in the northern sky.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Your voice is a husk, low and hoarse, in the dark. “Its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness.” Your eyes, once fixed on the sea of stars above, shift to him once more.

Closer to the shoreline now, and unbeknownst to you, Steve had gently waded you both inshore, until he could draw you toward the dock.

You let him walk you back until you’re flush against a mooring pole, wood rough against your moon-bathed skin. Body yielding to him as both his hands slide beneath your bottom, squeezing the soft flesh of your ass before he pulls you forward by the hips.

“S’okay, honey,” He mutters—right into your panting mouth with a sultry pull of his lips. “I’ve got you.”

“Steve,” You gasp, “This is unfair.” Your body jerks with every teasing kiss from his lips that he laves and sucks to the column of your throat.

He ignores you, crawling his hands onto your hips to keep you from squirming. Works his thigh in between your legs for good measure. Once you’re settled, he moves one hand to your center a finger trailing up and down your slippery folds. His mouth latches onto the spot that makes you keen, just behind your ear. You fist his hair in both hands at the same time he slips a digit inside.

But Steve doesn’t move. Other than his tongue’s soft licks on your neck and into your kiss-bitten mouth, he doesn’t move at all. He happily lets his finger rest inside of you, gathering your juices all over his hand.

You whimper, trying to shimmy against them, anything to create more contact. Its intrusion lights a terrible match inside of your body, and goddamn it, you want to a forest fire.

Calming breaths in and out. Steady head, steady heart. When you’re able to meet his gaze again, you take a moment to see him as he truly is: dappled in moonlight, forelock hanging in front of his eyes, his entire focus trained on you.

It feels like an eternity passes before he finally lets you have another—adding one more thick finger inside, stretching you as he moves them both around, curling them, scissoring them, pumping them in and out.

Steve sucks enthusiastically on your sensitive skin and lips, fucks you with two fingers almost wildly, and your body responds with fervor. You gasp and moan, arching back into his hand, goosebumps blooming all over your shoulders and down your arms and legs.

You shake like a leaf in his arms, not knowing if it’s from the cool night air or due to the man before you.

Instead of increasing his pace, Steve continues to stroke you with his fingers, slowly prodding at your entrance with a third. Your eyes roll back and get lost in your head as you lean back with a whimper.

“Just trying to get you ready.” He murmurs, so soft and low that your heart stills.

Your legs wrap around his back loosely as he holds you still, his previous two fingers pushing inside gently. The third finger meets resistance as you tense up. “S-sorry,” You whisper, “I’m…”

Your head knocks back against the wooden pier. But you move his hand back and try again. He’s so tender and sweet with you as he turns his head to place kisses on your cheek and ear.

You blink owlishly, trying desperately to weave your threads of thought together. A shake of your head to rattle them loose. A sweet smile up to Steve, a barely there kiss to his lips.

Your eyelids are heavy, breaths heaving from your chest. Steve commits to memory the way your lids flutter when he touches you.

You gasp and moan, arching your chest into his and pulled as taut as a bow sting—back forming a crescent-shaped arc, a sliver of the moon radiant in the inky blue reflection of the water.

“C’mon, that’s it, honey. You’re so close. Almost there… Good girl… Good girl.”

With a cry, you come undone, rolling your hips every which way as you reach orgasm on Steve’s hand. His voice continues to praise you, lips kissing your sweat-slicked collar, bristles on his cheek and jaw tickling your sensitive skin.

Coming back to yourself, you shiver bodily. And Steve looks at you as if you hold infinities in the palms your hands.

You reach for him reverently, desperate for his shape of beauty and noble nature. A dream realized, a wish granted, gentle and true. You feel brave enough to shift and stroke him with determination.

You whisper, "Missed you," eliciting a shudder from him as your palm grips him tenderly.

Relishing in the temperature of his body, you sigh. Spreading the beaded precome at the tip of his cock up and down his shaft. Steve groans, head falling to yours.

“Missed you more,” He hums, eyes heavy-lidded and lustful.

Gasping as Steve guides your hips with one hand, and grips himself with the other. Slowly and without haste, he fills you inch by inch until he’s so deep inside you think he could burst from your throat.

You whimper. There aren’t enough words to describe it— the gratifying sting, an all-encompassing and chilling burn, a mystifying and utter fullness that nearly brings tears to your eyes. You’re fearful to move, to lose this sensation, and afraid to feel what comes next. But you know that you want it.

Steve kisses your lips tenderly, babbling praise, whispering affirmations, soothing the shock that surges up your spine with his warm palm. Slowly, he rocks you back, as water lapping against your thighs, holds onto your body with one hand, smoothing the hair that falls over your face with the other.

You’re gripping him so tightly it takes some effort to slide even an inch of him out— and there’s many inches of him. Sweat collects on your brow as you grind, dragging against his length, forcing shudders to course all over both your bodies. “Is this okay?” you cry, delirious, “Steve? You feel so good.”

He moves in you, like a prayer.

A groan escapes him as his hand squeezes your back just a little too hard. He’s holding back, trying to prolong your pleasure, but his own is chasing him down, only a few steps away from pouncing.

You coax it towards him with faster snapping of your hips against his, clawing at his back, nibbling on his ear. “Come on, lover… just a little more.”

With a grunt and a shudder, and a hard kiss to your lips that makes your teeth clack against each other, Steve thrusts one last time as deeply as possible, riding out his orgasm as he pulls your hips against his.

The two of you feel rooted together, sticky with sweat and so tightly flushed that you’re not sure where he ends and you begin. Your body slumps as you drape your arms over his neck. Steve turns his head to kiss your shoulder before making the effort to pull away, your shaky legs held in his secure grasp.

The black slik of night gives way to the earth’s rotation, stars and moon bending to the will of gravity. Splashes in its silent, dark depths as you broach the shore. A little shaky on your feet, but he’s close behind, sultry and brilliant like the summer morning quickly approaching.

Whispers and murmurs tucked between fervent kisses as you dress. Fabric sticking to damp skin as his hands roam. Frenetic movements as he backs you up against the car, the coolness of it causing you to shiver.

“You should do it,” he rasps against your lips. “The Italy thing, you always loved it there.”

“How did you–” you sputter.

You can’t see him roll his eyes, but you just know. “Nance, who else?”

The warmth of Steve’s body burns against you, a hand threading through your hair half-convinced the moon is hiding there, hanging like a jewel in the night. And you’re a mess when you kiss him. Your breath is warm and so sweet, and the center of his chest squirms like something alive.

In that moment, you love him but can’t tell him, not yet. You decide the sun that will kiss freckles to his face will do it for you.

The song of summer sings out as you load your suitcase into Nancy’s car a few days later. The trunk slams closed and your back is pressed against his chest, his arm hanging casually around your collar. It is the end of May, the first bloom of summer balmy on your skin.

Steve had not taken the news of Nancy driving you to the airport well.

At all.

A sponged necklace of kisses to your throat as the light creeps in. Sheets kicked to the edge of the bed so you’re tangled up in him. Skin already glinting gold in the summer sun. Twisting in his hold, desperate to glance at the time. “Steve,” muffled against the heft of his shoulder, “I gotta go, Nance will be here soon.”

The turn of his weight bearing down, trapping your body under his. A cruel circle of his hips has you shuddering. His breath ghosts along your skin, “Baby, baby please.” Nose trailing down from your sternum to the swell of your stomach. Pausing there for lips to lave kisses on the curves that trailed to your hips.

Eyes dark and heady with promise, “Just a taste.” Lips and mouth delving lower now, fingers parting the cleave of your cunt with a squelch. He hooks them back into his mouth with a groan. “Mmm,” he slurs, drunk off your arousal. “You taste good, sweetheart,” His nose bumps against your clit, “Like honey.”

Breath stuttering in the cage of your ribs, you fist his hair in one hand and tug. Steve moans overtly, pupils blown wide while he’s face deep in pussy. “Steve,” Your voice trembles. He glances up, smoldering and glorious, drinking you up. “Ah—fuck,” before you’re overtaken again.

You’re desperate, and he can hear it in your voice. A quiver in your throat, you swallow thickly mouth falling open in a pant. His fingers work into you easily, dragging exquisitely along your channel—warm and wet, only growing more so with every thrust of his hand. You mewl, hips bucking up as he sucks your swollen clit.

Legs thrown over his shoulders, as he cants your pelvis forward, arm heavy against your stomach to bully you in place. “Sweet girl,” He coos, lips ruddy and wet with your slick. “Doin’ so well for me.” You shiver in his hold, sunbeams hazy with orange glow, the refracting light makes a halo to crown him and for a second you feel blind.

Then you feel something pulled taut in your belly. A chord stretching like a rubber band before it snaps. The wind up is excruciating, Steve’s litany of devotions falling in hushed murmurs from his lips. His fingers plunging up into the chasm between your legs, pulling away wetter each time.

He bends back down, tongue circling your clit at a dizzying pace. A third finger slides in impossibly, a keen igniting from your throat—high and whimpering. God, you’re so close. You babble, hands scrambling purchase against his dewy skin.

“Come,” he commands, “Come for me right now and I’ll fuck you through it, how you like. Then I’ll make you come again and we can go.”

“Oh my god,” you thrash on the bed, hair sticking to the sheen of your face, hanging on by a thread as his fingers drive into you, on a mission to break either the bed frame or your brain, both were fine. In a rush. Can’t quit now. A little bit more. Your entire body is folded against him, insides fluttering desperately, maddeningly.

“Everyone’s gonna know,” Steve promises, “You stumbling in there.”

The image flashes through your lust-addled brain, the telltale sign of him screwing you stupid— lips swollen, legs wobbly, outfit crumpled up, smelling like him and sex in front of all your friends.

“You want it, don’t you, want them to know you’re all mine?” He smears your wet around the sides of your cunt— spit, slick— up to your clit. And then he pushes you like a button, flicking the pad of his thumb upwards and grins at the way you jerk in time.

“Stevie,” you mewl, “Steve.” The syllable breaks, your panting comes out in choked babbling.

You drily sob out something broken, a tiny echo of affirmation as he keeps fucking into you like he could break through. He’s really abused your pussy this morning, maybe gone too far, but every time you come like this, it’s like he’s seeing something holy.

“Oh my god…!” It’s a small shout as you shatter, and it makes Steve’s spine light up as you rub your face further into the pillow.

“Praying to me, sweetheart?” but doesn’t stop those tiny, hard circles, doesn’t stop melting into your body, his dick pulsing as he ruts against the sheets. “You can keep doing that,” he urges, “I like that.”

So, you’re not surprised when the two of you stumble into a nearly finished breakfast, as predicted, in a terrible disarray, and Robin crosses herself before promising, “I’m getting you two a goddamn chastity belt.”

On the couch, Eddie clicks the remote to a new channel, snapping his ring-clad fingers with an offhanded, “A-fucking-men.”

As much as you tried to tell yourself that this wasn’t goodbye but instead see you soon, it didn’t stick. But the ache in your gut did—low and menacing, growling like an animal.

Eddie and Robin were easy, promises to stay in touch and bring back the best candy. Your parents were less so, tight hugs and dried tears on cheeks.

Steve, however, you needed to brace yourself for. Short of chaining yourself to Nancy’s car, you weren’t sure how you’d escape with your dignity intact. He was already kissing on you, soft and sweet, as Nancy slid into the driver’s seat while Eddie and Robin waved goodbye walking back inside.

You slip from his grasp in a flash, pulling him by the belt loops to knock hips. “Stevie, lover mine,” you sing, his palms cupping your ass as his hands slide into your back pockets.

Lover.

What a word.

You think about it every waking second—the way he stretches in the morning, how he sings in the shower, dances in the kitchen, smiles and beams at anyone who passes by—how good he is.

How you love him.

“Mm—” raspy, tongue darting out to wet his lips.

Feet walking you closer and closer and you’re pressed against him. Nosing along the column of his neck, nipping at the delicate skin there, watching as his throat bobs when he swallows.

Hands free themselves from denim confines, a thumb caresses the small of your back. Steve pries your hand from his chest, and brings it to his mouth, placing a tender kiss against your palm.

You hum as his lips brush your skin, observing as he meanders to the thin flesh of your wrist. Hazel eyes near golden in the morning sun as Steve looks to you, face open and fond. Lips featherlight when they kiss your thundering pulse.

Only then do you start to break.

You thought you were prepared. But it steals the breath from your lungs, levelling you to ruin, a creeping sense of hopelessness in its wake.

He’s quick to notice, crushing you to his chest and hand cradling your head. Soothing murmurs of “S’okay honey, we’ll be alright,” and the rasp of your name. Fingers brushing hair from your face with a soft smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

And it is hard to leave him, but you can do difficult things.

Forehead bent to yours, back warm in the sun’s decorous rays, a searing tear-laden kiss and you’re off. Turned back in your seat to see him recede in the distance until he’s a mere speck on the horizon as Nancy tugs you forward.

All the goodbyes had all been said, save one thing lodged in the depths of your throat.

I love you.

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington fanfiction #steve harrington smut #stranger things fanfiction #the kids aren't alright rosewaterandivy #modern!steve harrington #teacher!steve

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lorcandidlucienwill · 5 months

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The only parts of ACOWAR you need to know

Did you hate ACOMAF and you're scared of reading ACOWAR? I gotchu. This is all you need to know from ACOWAR (this will be pretty long):

2 pages later... “You sent the Bogge after them!” Tamlin roared at (Feyre and Lucien). Not long after...

I would've chosen Lucien... Lucien's POV:

Later...

And now the real drama begins...

Rhysand: “I’m not in the business of discussing our plans with enemies.” “No,” Tamlin said with equal ease, “you’re just in the business of fucking them.” “Seems a far less destructive alternative to war.” “And yet here you are, having started it in the first place.” “If you hadn’t stolen my bride away in the night, Rhysand, I would not have been forced to take such drastic measures to get her back.”

“You don’t get to rewrite the narrative,” (Feyre) breathed. “You don’t get to spin this to your advantage.” *gets ignored* Tamlin: “When you fuck her, have you ever noticed that little noise she makes right before she climaxes?” Azriel: Be CaReFuL hOw YoU sPeAk To My HiGh LaDy. *gets ignored* Tamlin: “It was not enough to sit at my side, was it? You once asked me if you’d be my High Lady, and when I said no …” A low laugh. “Perhaps I underestimated you. Why serve in my court, when you could rule in his?”

Rhys: Well, played, Tamlin. You're learning. Tamlin: “You asked why I’m here? I might ask the same of you.” He jerked his chin at the High Lord of Winter, at Viviane—the few other members of their retinue who had remained silent. “You mean to tell me that after Under the Mountain, you can stomach working with him?” A finger flung in Rhysand’s direction. Rhys: “I had no involvement in that. None.” Kallias: “You stood beside her throne while the order was given.” Rhys: "I tried to stop it." Kallias: “Tell that to the parents of the two dozen younglings she butchered. That you tried."

Rhysand: “When your people rebelled...She was furious. She wanted you dead, Kallias. I … convinced her that it would serve little purpose.” “Who knew,” Beron mused, “that a cock could be so persuasive?” *Rhysand gives another bullshit sob story* “Stories and words,” Tamlin said, lounging in his chair. “Is there any proof?” Kallias: "Why are you here, Tamlin?" Tamlin: “I am here to help you fight against Hybern." Thesan: “You will forgive us if we are doubtful. And hesitant to share any plans.” “Even when I have information on Hybern’s movements? Why do you think I invited them to the house? Into my lands? I once told you I would fight against tyranny, against that sort of evil. Did you think you were enough to turn me from that? It was so easy for you to call me a monster, despite all I did for you, for your family. Yet you witnessed all that he did Under the Mountain, and still spread your legs for him. Fitting, I suppose. He whored for Amarantha for decades. Why shouldn’t you be his whore in return?” Mor: “Watch your mouth." *gets ignored*

Helion: “Noble as it sounds, who is to say that information is correct—or that you aren’t Hybern’s agent, trying to mislead us?” Tamlin: “Who is to say that Rhysand and his cronies are not agents of Hybern, all of this a ruse to get you to yield without realizing it?”

Feyre: “You’re insane. Do you hear what you’re saying? Hybern turned my sisters into Fae—after your bitch of a priestess sold them out!” Tamlin: “Perhaps Ianthe’s mind was already in Rhysand’s thrall. And what a tragedy to remain young and beautiful. You’re a good actress—I’m sure the trait runs in the family.” Feyre: “What do you want? An apology? For me to crawl back into your bed and play nice, little wife?” Tamlin: “Why should I want spoiled goods returned to me?” *Rhysand does violent shit and ruins our fun* Mor: “You still certainly like to hear yourself talk, Eris. Good to know some things don’t change over the centuries.” Eris: “Good to know that after five hundred years, you still dress like a slut.” *Azriel tries to choke Eris to death because he's crazy*

Daddy Lucien to the rescue as usual

Rhysand: “Then don’t take (the antidote). I will. My entire court will, as will my armies.” Tamlin: “At least you have armies to give it to. Though perhaps that was part of the plan. Disable my force while your own swept in. Or was it just to see my people suffer? Surely you knew that when you turned my forces on me, it would leave my people defenseless against Hybern. You primed my court to fall. And it did. Those villages you wanted so badly to help rebuild? They’re nothing more than cinders now. And while you’ve been making antidotes and casting yourselves as saviors, I’ve been piecing together my forces—regaining their trust, their numbers. Trying to gather my people in the East—where Hybern has not yet marched."

Beron: “Did you know that while your mate was warming Amarantha’s bed, most of our people were locked beneath that mountain? Did you know that while he had his head between her legs, most of us were fighting to keep our families from becoming the nightly entertainment? And now Rhysand wants to play hero. Amarantha’s Whore becomes Hybern’s Destroyer. But if it goes badly …Will he get on his knees for Hybern? Or just spread his—” *Feyre attacks Lucien's mother like a bitch then gives a pathetic apology* Beron: “Don’t talk to her, you human filth.” *Rhysand attacks Beron like a bitch* Then Nesta stands up and gets every mfing High Lord to listen without attacking anyone because she's a goddamn queen! And that delightful Neris moment: (Nesta) looked to Beron and his family as she finished. Only the Lady and Eris seemed to be considering—impressed, even, by the strange, simmering woman before them.

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whetstonefires · 8 months

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The thing about the Shazam! (Captain Marvel but they don't have the rights to call him that) movie is that overall it's pretty good? Even if I question the pacing choices made in terms of screentime breakdown for '14yo boys making mortifying life choices and humorously failing judgment calls' vs. 'character development wrt to literally anything else about this fairly large cast.'

It's hokey; it should be. It's got some decent themes and fun character bits and set up good solid hero/villain parallels to subvert.

But.

But it massively clotheslined itself with a major storytelling fuckup connected to the opening hook mystery, whose resolution is meant to be the emotional inflection point of the whole film.

Because the thing is, this movie chose to be slightly interesting in how it approached its 'family' themes. In a variation on 'family of choice' (since your foster family are in fact assigned by the government and Billy not having a choice about living with them only about trusting them is a major story element) it went for the more nuanced and kind of interestingly grimy take that the people who are actually in your life giving a shit about you matter, if you let them, and that you need to stop giving the people who failed to love you power over your happiness.

Which is not a bad premise at all! As messages for a movie about a kid being sent to a group home go, that's the most upbeat you could possibly get and still be tied to reality.

The Vasquez couple are written and played well in these terms too because they really, genuinely care, and are making so much effort, but as system graduates themselves they never had competent parenting modeled for them and god does it show.

And the mental health problems of the kids who got enough characterization to have them were similarly...realistic in a best-case-scenario sort of way.

But! Still with the but! Even though they pulled off a lot of this fairly touchy premise rather well, there's a crack in the foundation that makes the whole movie kind of collapse on a thematic level.

Because the movie (following the prologue introducing the villain's backstory) opens with a juicy emotional hook where small Billy is separated from his mother at a Christmas fair and never sees her again.

Cut to some years later, establishing status quo scene, he's a Troubled Youth rebelling against the system in an endless quest to find his mother and go home. He is committing minor felonies to get access to police information about women surnamed Batson so he can go to their houses because eventually one of them has to be his mom.

His case worker after he's picked up again refers to his mother as 'someone who clearly didn't want you,' which Billy rejects as bullshit, and he's valid! Because that is not what you say when you have actual information. That's a surmise. That's a sentence that says Child Protective Services and the police couldn't find her either.

Especially because you don't immediately chuck a kid into foster care because he's found unattended. Maybe you do that later, after a lengthy period of oversight, depending on his mom's reaction to having him returned and her race and socioeconomic status and apparent mental health and so forth. But you don't just not contact her, and you definitely don't refuse to tell the kid about the result once you have.

The only normal situation where an accessible record exists of a kid's original parentage but it's denied to the kid is in sealed adoptions, which are a formal procedure that clearly didn't happen here. There is every indication in this opening sequence that his mom was never found.

Which means she's a missing person. Either because they located the correct Billy Batson and his adult never came back to their house (which would suggest foul play or some other drama) or because despite being old enough to be in school and knowing his own name, no one could find evidence that Billy existed prior to turning up at that street carnival.

Which would constitute a very mysterious situation! What is he, from a cult? Another dimension? Did someone (in the social worker's proposed scenario, Billy's mom) erase all record of her kid somehow? Was magic involved?

So: the way we're introduced to this scenario, there's a legitimate weird mystery here that none of the adults in Billy's life care enough about to do anything but tell him to write it off, the way they have. That his missing person clearly did it on purpose.

Billy's being ridiculous because if what he's trying would work then he wouldn't need to do it; his social worker could have arranged a meeting years ago. So it's a useless self-destructive behavior he needs to let go. But he's valid, in that he's being very obviously failed by the system and is doing the only thing he can think of to try to address his situation for himself.

And then! The Big Reveal is that his mom has been living under her maiden name in the same city as him this whole time.

Which the Gamer Kid Who Turns Out In This Scene To Be A Hacker (he's about 10) learned by. Breaking into a federal database.

So he goes to her house and it turns out. She'd been a teen mother and her babydaddy walked out after marrying her, and her parents cut her off, and she was depressed and felt like a bad mother so. When she saw the cops had her kid, she just walked away. And she wants to believe he's been happy and better off without her.

And the emotional arc of the film rests on how Billy comes to terms with this. With the fact that his past will never take him back and he has to learn to find joy in himself and his present situation and his future.

Having let go of that idea, he's able to emotionally commit to his gaggle of foster siblings and realize that unlike the villain, who was obsessed with punishing the people who never loved or accepted him, or the wizard who was focused on finding The Perfectly Worthy Champion, what you needed to be good and not lost was to be part of a mutually supportive group, like the wizard Shazam was before he and his siblings were betrayed. And then they can be a superhero team, woo!

And that part is actually depicted fairly well, all things considered!

But the problem is that the audience, to vibe with this properly, has to roll with the revelation that Billy was wrong to cling to the mystery of his vanished, beloved mother and the fantasy of going home again.

We have to be willing to participate in the idea that the Resistant Child Subjected To Foster Care was in the wrong.

And he wasn't! He wasn't wrong! His understanding of the situation was flawed but it should not have been flawed in this manner.

Because this scenario as it's depicted doesn't make any sense. The cops do not just keep your kid without following up if you fail to collect him from the baggage claim. CPS does not fail to provide a kid with the readily available evidence that he's been voluntarily surrendered to them, when he keeps running off trying to go home.

Why would they do that, after all? Billy's misbehavior was a huge hassle for them. They gained nothing by denying him access to his mother and the information about her that was, you recall, sitting totally available in a government database that could be hacked by a random 10 year old asian-american orphan. They just...made their own lives harder for no reason, while extending the suffering of a child in their care.

If the cops tried to return him back when and she said 'no i left him with you on purpose please keep him' maybe she gets prosecuted for child abandonment and maybe not, but either way, billy would know about it.

But if the screenwriters had made it clear early on that this information had been offered to him and he'd chosen not to believe it, they couldn't get a proper Reveal at the end because it would just be Billy being unable to continue pretending something the audience had known not to believe all along.

And they couldn't cram a good reason for the scenario they'd set up into the space they'd accorded it.

So they were just like, it's fine, if we cram enough cliches into this space people will react to the familiarity and go 'ah yes i know this one' and go along with it, and not notice that this isn't an actual coherent reply to the question that was set up an hour ago and therefore is emotionally unsatisfying somehow.

Anyway this is an important storytelling guideline: if you put in a mystery to control either the actual plot or, even worse, the emotional storyline, that mystery and its resolution have to make internal sense.

If you pull the Real Situation out of your ass, and it's not a matter of red herrings or That One Fact you didn't have that makes all the rest fit together differently, but in fact no one involved could have figured this out and especially if the people who did say this in the first place had no good basis for it, but still get narratively awarded the Correct trophy in a way that contributes to the thematic climax so the audience has to care. Then that will not get good results. It will make it hard to deliver on your intended themes.

Some people will not notice or care! This is true! But a lot of people will, and you'll get enough of a better punch even with the other folks, if the setup and denouement fit together properly and don't require reaching, to matter.

And when people do notice at all, rather than their naturally flowing along with the climax you're steering toward and experiencing A Story, there will be a tendency to notice you standing there placing roadsigns toward the Intended Emotional Response, and call you a hack.

People call out plotholes way too vigorously sometimes, so I want to be clear: it's not the lack of supporting logic I mind. It's that the active presence of illogic, of what's presented as a chain but is broken along its length, means the central character arc intersects with the core theme in a noticeably forced way. Which is bad craftsmanship on a meaningful level.

There is a loss of cohesion where you cannot satisfactorily resolve how the scenario we were initially shown came to be superimposed over the revealed truth, because that relationship between elements is very important to making a 'revelation' storyline land, you know?

In this case it's particularly vexing to me because the last-minute asspull and its thematic weight reaches back around and at the last minute moves the whole movie thematically to the other side of the line wrt whether it's approaching Billy, our protagonist, as a subject with whom we're supposed to identify or an object whom we're supposed to observe.

It makes all the high-school-freshman-posing-as-adult gags retroactively less funny because we were now more explicitly laughing at him, and takes a lot of the depth out of the emotionally sincere moments.

Up to that point I had really appreciated how, despite wavering that way, Shazam! hadn't actually fallen to the MCU Spiderman temptation to dehumanize its protagonist. Which seems to arise out of this weird tendency I've noticed to assume the natural sentiment of adults toward adolescents is bemused contempt, and that therefore if they ask their audience of paying grownups to empathize too closely with a teen hero instead of setting him and his Immaturity up as a clown for our amusement, they'll get themselves banished to the Children's Fiction ghetto.

And, of course, if they'd been fully committed to one side or the other of 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to closely' or 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to distantly,' they wouldn't have gotten snarled up about how much information to hand over when.

Committing to either option (giving us only as much information as Billy had and constructing a story that was solid from a being-Billy angle or giving us more information than Billy and operating confidently in the realm of dramatic irony) could have worked quite well. But because of the mixed signals and unstable narrative distance, they wound up with a distinctly weakened finale.

#hoc est meum #in real life things happen that you have no good reason to expect all the time #but in real life we know they happened for some kind of reason as in #causality exists and even in situations where we can't dig into the chain #we have cause to understand that it's there #in fiction they happened because they'd be convenient #so the rules of what information can be available and how you frame new information being revealed exist #to keep the audience from feeling jerked around #you have to earn people's trust and if you lose it #that limits the kind of results you can get #when writing fiction one of your tools is the reader's mind #if you give them reason not to allow you free use of it your composition contracts #screenwriting #shazam #and like in this case there's a profound betrayal of the protagonist and thus of the audience who connected with him wrapped up in it

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dangermousie · 4 months

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10 Characters That Make Me Feel Things

tagged by @imlivingformyselfdontmindme

Since I am tagged by a cdrama buddy, I am gonna limit it to cdramas.

Wolfie/Chu Youwen, The Wolf (2020). I enjoy drama characters often, but I never lust over them. Meet close to the sole exception. Anyone who was following me when this drama aired, remembers the insanity. I finally understood what groupies are on about.

Xiao Qi, The Rebel Princess (2021) - the ur drama general, as far as I am concerned.

Awu, The Rebel Princess (2021) - I would fight through insurmountable odds to get to her also.

Jiang Xiao Yuan, Derailment (2023) - I am with @imlivingformyselfdontmindme she is everything and I am totally a JXY defender!

Xiao Yao, Lost You Forever Part 1 (2023) - my FL of the year. She would be terrible as a partner and insurmountable amount of work but I can totally get why all these people chase her, I would too.

Tushan Jing, LYF 1 (2023) - I want to make him sandwiches, give him a number of a great therapist and a genetics counselor and also some paper so he can scheme to help his girl's cousin take over the world as some sort of valentine's day present.

Ji Ye, Novoland Eagle Flag (2019) - murder more people in the streets, I love you pls!

Fan Xian, Joy of Life (2019) - mmmm

Yi Xiao Chuan, The Myth (2019) - let me weep in peace. The power of overwhelming will and brain and decency. Being not enough to save a damn thing.

Eighth Prince, Gong (2011) - the terrifying start of my finding queues sexy!

Xiao Yi Qing, Listening Snow Tower (2019) and Su Mengzhen, Heroes (2022) - nobody's ever coughed this beautifully while slaughtering as these two.

Yu Sifeng, Love and Redemption (2020) - duh

Ren Ruyi and Ning Yuanzhou, A Journey to Love (2023) - of course.

Shen Minglan and Gu Tingye, The Story of Minglan (2018) - my n1 drama and my n1 couple.

Ning Que, Ever Night 1 (2019) - young killer with infinite softness for one tiny world-destroying servant. I loved this character.

Ning Yi, The Rise of Phoenixes (2018) and Ye Hua, Three Lives (2017) - long hair obsessions.

Tantai Jin, Till the End of the Moon (2023) - I've already talked war and peace amounts about this man.

Yuan Hong in any drama.

This is way more than 10 so gonna stop.

#cdrama

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imkittyjustkitty · 1 year

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① all that's dead and gone and passed

🔱 — i'd meet the sea ༄ ⠀finnick odair x tribute!reader series ⚔️ 🔖) CHAPTER ONE [two] [three] [four] [five] [six] [seven] [eight]

chapter summary; Your backstory. Growing up in District 10, training for the games, being reaped... And coming home. warnings; unhealthy family dynamics/childhood, knives/weapons, blood & mild wounds, mentions of animal death & reader killing them, missing persons, mentions of reader killing several people, like one swear word A/N; this chapter is just to establish reader's backstory and set up the timing for everything. it's pretty heavy but i don't describe anything too graphically so even if you're a bit squeamish this should be fine!!

The Hunger Games are an entertainment show in all the ways that matter, if anyone plans on surviving them that's how they need to view it. Yes, they serve the purpose they're stated to — they keep the districts at bay, they keep the people's ambitions down and their behaviour in-line — but that's only for the districts.

For the Capitol? When it comes down to it, It's the entertainment event of the year - and a tribute intent on survival needs to treat it like one.

Growing up your mother would teach you how to wield knives and other weapons on the weekends. The memory of losing her brother to the games when she was only 14 and he was only 13 stayed fresh in her mind every time when you were growing up that you'd watch the reaping each year with her, lectures reaching your ears about how one day that would be you, one day you'll be sent off and she'll be damned if you don't make it back.

She'd grip tightly onto your hand every time, almost drawing blood as her nails duck into your soft skin and her hold on you strong.

She would whisper to you in those moments everything about combat she had taught you, mere minutes before each year's reaping she was no longer your mother but rather someone who had known loss and refused to meet it's merciless face yet again. You were not a warrior, you were a soldier who would hang intently onto her every word and order as you would stand with your mother, understanding that in only a few years you would be stood with the other kids your age, waiting to see if you would finally be thrown into the war your mother had been preparing you for.

She treated it like an unavoidable reality, you had been anticipating being reaped your whole life.

Your father on the other hand, saw the games for what they were, entertainment. He'd heard tales passed down generations of family's, friends, brief acquaintances who whispered of the Covey — of the singing girl — how the people of the Capitol latched their claws into her innocent flesh and ate away at her like she was some sort of idol to be held in the limelight and shown off to the world.

Your father understood that what the Capitol wanted was a good show, keep the eyes of their people on the drama and the 'plot'-twists as they punished the descendants of rebels generations after the damage had already been long-since done.

After you'd come home from your mother's training sessions, slight smears of blood grazing along your fingertips and creeping across your warm cheeks, your father would pull you aside as you both would tend to the livestock. He would recall previous tributes, the Covery girl's story always on the tip of his tongue during the lessons, and other young girls who played the part of innocent daughters who were just so excited to be in the Capitol to experience it all - and thus grabbing for the hearts of the Capitol and holding them gently in their grasps. He spoke of the sisters and brothers who simply 'wanted to get back home to their family, please', and who would tear up during their interviews as they recalled all the loving details of their upbringings.

Your father would mention all the facades that tributes tried their desperate hands at, going into detail into every single one and encouraging you to mimic the attributes these children would put on to find any angle that would endear the audiences to themselves.

As you grew, your preparation for The Hunger Games became a second nature. Wake up, feed the cattle, train with your mother, have dinner, practise your act. You were okay with most of the weapons your mother would drop into your hands, you were cool and calculated and never once let it get to you - you hadn't been phased by the fact that this was training for a life-or-death battle since before you'd started middle school.

You and your father had agreed on an act you both had labelled 'The Capitol's Misplaced Jewel', he described it to you like a needle in a haystack. A young farm-raised child that embodied everything that the Capitol citizens would imagine a District 10 citizen to be like, thick accent, crooked smile, but a twinkle in their eyes, all the attributes of a kid who'd grown up in a place where they'd early-on had to learn how to snap a chicken's neck — but without those details, no-one would root for you if they thought you were anything but the digestible image they'd created in their uneducated little heads. You would play the part of a young child who yearned for the glitz and glamour of a world that felt just so tragically out of reach.

And then you turned 12.

Your first proper reaping felt like the end of worlds, you stood among your peers perfectly still. You waited, for your name to be called, to be sent off to the Capitol to do what you'd been taught to do, at twelve years old you closed your eyes for a moment and waited for the rapture, knowing deep down that this was your moment.

And then it all went back to normal, exactly one day went by where it was like you were a five year old just helping out on your family's farm again — and then it was back to the training and acting practice.

Your father was relieved — but even then at only twelve, you could see the confliction in your mother's eyes. She'd given you all of her time and energy to train you to survive something she was so sure you'd get reaped into as soon as you were of age... And yet?

This repeated the next year. It was like the world had ignored your call, forgetting what you were meant for and just dropping you on the side-lines without a care.

Your mother left the next year when you yet again failed to be reaped. She left in the night with almost sign of her departure, not even a note, just a brand new knife stabbed into your bedside table and an air of injustice sweeping through your home that was now only shared between you and your father.

Year after year you were denied your passage to the Capitol.

You stopped waiting for it, you stopped staying up late at night wishing for your name to be plucked out of the signature glass bowl. You moved on.

18 years old and still you lived in the same old farm-house with your same old life that seemed to never change with the tides.

You remember the day vividly - something you're not used to being able to do anymore — you remember the scratch of the over-all's you'd worn to every reaping since you were sixteen, the collared shirt you'd borrowed from your father sticking to your rough skin in the dry summer air as you slowly moved with the flow of other District 10 citizens to the town hall.

You hadn't been listening, well aware of the safety net you'd been granted that seemed to decide you would be free of the games forever.

And then several of your classmates were pushing you away, towards the makeshift stage in front of the town hall. Your eyelids were heavy and confused as the peacekeepers had grabbed you by both your arms and practically dragged you up to the podium.

A man was talking to you, his skin was pale and paper-thin, makeup caked on his slim body and an air of superiority that made you view him as a seventy year old who'd just taken his first dose of morphling and had yet to experience the actual effects — the paper-bag of a man looked like he felt he was above it all, and you bet he felt like such a charitable person for lifting you up to there with him.

The other tribute was fourteen years old and rather good at pretending they weren't scared shitless — you were pretty sure you'd never seen them before in your life.

Your goodbyes consisted of your father reminding you of your 'ditzy farm-raised persona' and how you should act as them. You didn't know how to feel about that at that point, the act you and your father had curated fit a small chubby-cheeked wide-eyed twelve year old, not the hardened closed-off eighteen year old you'd grown into.

One other person came to say goodbye, an old woman who you were pretty sure had been an enemy of your mother's after she had taken too long to find the right amount of hay one winter's day.

She simply reached out to you and held your hand, nodding to herself more than to you. The moment was silent, until you'd grown suffocated by her presence and pushed the frail woman away. She smelt like your mother, she probably thought like her too, probably only came to wish you luck because of some guilt she had felt in the past.

You didn't help her back up after she'd tripped over the carpet and hit the ground harshly, but you didn't kick her while she was down.

You found yourself wishing that your mother would join you for one last time, and perhaps even sneak a knife into your pocket for good measure.

She never did of course, she was long gone and you knew it.

Stepping out of the town hall towards the train that would be your ticket to the Capitol was easy for you, you felt a déjà vu that told you you were doing what you had meant to be doing in all those years prior.

Everything from there was crystal clear, from the chariots to your interview to every single moment spent in the arena. You remember every single kill, everything you said, every gasp you elicited from disgusted Capitol members during your three minute interview with Caesar Flickerman. You had dropped the idea of the farm-girl act, you were eighteen and looked even older — not a single person would believe you to be a bright-eyed bushy-tailed girl who just dreamed to indulge in the glitz and glamour of the Capitol.

No, you had the rough blistered hands of someone who could be gossiped to be a cold-blooded murderer back home and people would believe it, the sunken eyes that should belong on the face of a worn-out single mother who refuses to let go of her dwindling hope. You were a ghost of who you were meant to be, so you took a different angle in curating a Hunger Games Persona.

You told Caesar the detailed story of the first time you'd had to kill an animal, staring right into a camera lens or right into his bright eyes. You fabricated a story of countless friends you had lost due to your violent inclinations, of your yearning for blood. The Capitol hated you, they were your villain, the one everyone wanted gone.

But you were the one who refused to 'just die already!', who in turn took up a considerable amount of screen-time just for the shock-value of it all.

You'd struck up an alliance with your district partner — Aleks — they turned out to be somewhat capable with tracking setting traps. You immediately 'befriended' them, noticing the merit in having a sort of ally by your side would up your chances of survival.

You spent 2 days in the arena with them, they grew to trust you, you were almost like an older sibling figure to them. You didn't make that mistake, of forming an attachment to someone who was only one of the pieces in the puzzle that would get you to winning the games. Their back had been turned to you as they walked carefully in front of you, their assumption being that the two of you were searching for food. You drove a dagger right through their chest and could practically hear the cries of indignation flying from Capitol citizens' mouths.

Winning the 68th Annual Hunger Games, to you, was inevitable — it had to happen — it was what you were always meant to do.

You had heard wind at one point of some Capitol citizens protesting against your victor's tour, but when you stood in front of the crowd of all the colourful people, they cheered. You were their ugly duckling, someone who's name would be mentioned followed by a statement of 'I can fix them'. You'd even heard of the odd citizen who found you morbidly attractive in a sense, dedicated fan clubs flocking to your bloodied feet with giddy squeals.

You were spared the 'opportunity' of staying in the Capitol, no matter how crazed your 'fans' were, they were few and a bit of a guilty pleasure that Capitol citizens mostly hid, the larger population lightheaded with fear at the mere possibility of you walking their streets.

You returned home to find your father dead and your childhood home shattered, years of life lost to ruin.

And so, with your past all but burnt to the ground and your purpose fulfilled, you supposed the victor's village became a sort of tomb.

But it seems even the dead don't get to rest, not with the third annual quarter quell stalking right around the corner.

series taglist: @universal-s1ut @stitch-lele @starrgirl4444 let me know if you want to be added or removed!

#finnick odair x reader #finnick imagine #finnick x y/n #finnick x you #finnick odair #hunger games x reader #the hunger games x reader #the hunger games x you #the hunger games x y/n #finnick odair fanfic #finnick odair imagine #finnick odair x you #finnick odair angst #finnick odair fluff #hunger games finnick #hunger games fic #hunger games fanfiction #hunger games fandom #i'll be a leading lady if i get my shot — my writing

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ji-ang · 3 months

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DRC Valentine’s Day Fest: A Rebel(CA)p(T)ain Reclist

Part II: Modern/Earthly Settings

Fics set on Earth or something that kind of resembles it.

Return to main post for other cat related rebelcaptain content! (this link is now fixed!)

In the spirit of clicking links, today and every day is a good day to click to freely donate ad revenue from this site to the UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

Recs below! 💕

Alphabetical by author! All links are to the ao3 version of the fic because that’s how and where I found them.

I've tried to do my research and identify authors' tumblrs if I'm able to tag them. If I tagged the wrong person or if you're tagged and you don't want to be, just let me know. 💕

Tethered (to The Story We Must Tell) by dancealongthelightofday (@dilf-din)

I only just discovered this one because it got uploaded to ao3 after previously only being on tumblr! Witch!Jyn gives off all sorts of spooky all knowing and cool vibes, as do her identical black cats.

The Hacker and the Veterinarian by jbn42

The title gets to the premise pretty straightforwardly! Siblings Bodhi and Jyn each adopt a cat and deal with their respective traumas (with a bit of high stakes Krennic drama thrown in as a final arc to the story). Jyn and Cassian have no chill and fall in love pretty much right away. Some lovely Dad!SpiritAssassin content.

partners in exasperation by katsumi (@leralynne)

A fun neighbors!au where neither of them are the cat owner, but the cat definitely has a major hand in facilitating their meeting and getting together. Also features a lot of great Bodhi & Jyn sibling energy and banter.

In Defense of Cat People by TinCanTelephone (@cats-and-metersticks)

An incredibly cute sickfic that features a prickly cat!Kay who eventually comes around to the idea that Jyn is tolerable.

F. I. N. E. by TinCanTelephone

Angsty Cassian adopts cat!Kay to try and cope with feeling lonely when he returns from an extended trip to find coworker Jyn is in a relationship. Some great Bodhi & Cassian friendship moments!

let the cat out of the bag by wintersend (@andorerso)

Jyn’s cat Mimi (whose personality is as fiery as Jyn’s) develops a strong relationship with FWB!Cassian, which pokes at Jyn’s commitment issues. Excellent romcom vibes.

There's also a tumblr tag that the author has with related content!

Back to main post (this link is now fixed!)

#rebelcaptain #reclist #drcvalentinescelebration

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barmadumet · 8 months

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Ahsoka Episode 5 Spoilers Below!

Okay, I’m going to do something I never do, and I don’t think ever have done – I’m going to do the “take” thing – put my opinion online. I don’t like to do this, because I feel like there is ALWAYS someone opposed, and I just don’t want any bad energy revolving around my beloved escape from reality.

For the last twenty-two hours, I have been profusely hitting the ❤️s on other posts, jumping up and down and hugging people, and basically just doing the equivalent of shouting, “ANAKIN!!!” but I’ve yet to really try to discuss Episode 5, because, quite frankly, it’s just been too freaking emotional for me! I have all these feelings that I don’t know how to sort out, and I've honestly felt like I could burst into tears at any given moment, all day long. I went through this with the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and I remember I felt literally insane for a WHILE. Perhaps, I should’ve written something like this back then – writing is my outlet, after all.

So, here we go. . . I don’t have many followers, and I know many people won’t read this, but I just need to get it out!

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend, Wibz asked me, “What kind of story do you like? What kind of fic do you like to read?” I replied sappy, mushy, hurt/comfort, of course. I told her I like dialogue – dealing with emotional ups and downs - HEALING. I told her I liked fix-its and time travel, and I specifically said I like seeing into ‘what could’ve been’ scenarios, and I mentioned by name the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” And the thing I really love about that movie is the ability to visit the past. I like stories that take us back – and not just as a flashback, but a present character being able to look at their past and reflect. You probably know where this is going by now, but the way we finally got our long-awaited Clone Wars ‘flashback’ couldn’t have been more perfect in my opinion.

And the thing that has made me the most emotional through all of this was simply seeing that first battle in live action. I will admit, upon viewing the first two episodes of Ahsoka, I felt the show might’ve been better presented in Rebels animation. Well, I can now, happily admit I was wrong.

We saw the brutal beginnings of the Clone Wars at the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones, and we see the heart-breaking conclusion and the end of the war in Revenge of the Sith. My personal opinion is that we have been very fortunate to get a great show about the time in between, however; being short, animated (directed at a younger audience) episodes, there are emotional aspects that are rushed through and not fully explored. If you’ve read my insanely long fix-it fic, then you know that it carries through these Clone Wars episodes that I love so very much, BUT in writing it my own way, I was able to put in all the drama I wanted to see – the breakdowns, the tears, a deeper look into the trauma of fighting in a war. And yes, there have been some amazing Star Wars novels that do this, but again, seeing it in live action. . . seeing just how young Ahsoka really was, seeing her mourn the injured and deceased clones. Having her and Anakin address the fragility of life and getting to hear that conversation about it. . . Now the viewing audience has a grasp on just how bleak this time period was. I didn’t know how bad I needed to see this – a human turned Togruta actor conveying those destroyed expressions and defeated body language. The impact was more than I expected, and it wouldn’t have been the same in animation.

The other super tear-jerky part for me was the theme of ‘Live or Die’ ‘Fight or Die’ . . .I can’t let myself get into too much detail about this, but if you know me, and you know my story, then you know. Great. I’m crying again 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was just such a powerful message for ANYONE struggling in any aspect of their life, and it sincerely helped me to rise another day, and will be a continued reminder, probably for a while.

You all know how much I love Anakin (and Obi-Wan), and so much of the hype is revolved around his character right now, but this personal journey we find Ahsoka on is truly beautiful to me. I was honestly uneasy about the way Ahsoka was portrayed, thus far, in our other series. She didn’t feel like Ahsoka to me. I accepted and understood that her character had been through much in her short life, and that much time had passed since we last saw her and she would've evolved, but overall, I honestly (😬) didn’t much enjoy what we got of her in live action. I kept my expectations for this show at the minimum. I try not to predict what might happen in canon Star Wars, because I never want to set myself up for disappointment. I strive to go in with an open mind and a clear head and just enjoy the show. But I’ll admit, I was hopeful for Ahsoka’s character development in this. . . and so far, I find myself satisfied. It has now been acknowledged how severely Anakin’s turn impacted her – that was a necessity in my opinion, because of course it did. And it’s still unfathomable to me, but I feel like we got to witness her getting her closure with Anakin 😭 At the end of episode 5, I was finally getting the Ahsoka vibes I was longing for. And let’s not ignore just how ’Ahsoka’ she was in the past scenes with Anakin! I was in awe of how her different animated fighting stances over the years translated into live action. It was her! And this is probably a great time to also mention: that was Anakin, too! In the beginning, we saw him on that World Between Worlds walkway training Ahsoka – the orchestrated footwork, the lack of aggression . . . It felt like the Anakin we see in the lightsaber kata training video Ahsoka watches in Rebels! We have not seen this in live action! We have not seen Anakin as a Master to an apprentice! 🥹 And again, I didn’t know how bad I needed that. Later, when we are taken back onto that WBW walkway, we see him fighting like we’ve seen in Revenge of the Sith. It’s Vader! And he’s so pissed and intends to kill! I won’t spend too much time gushing the way most already have – the Sith eyes, the flawless ROTS attire we already loved given back to us, and the Clone Wars look brought to life. . . the hair 😍 Just seeing him, Hayden Anakin, fight in a Clone Wars battle in live action! So strong and mighty 💪🏻 with such determination and sensitivity. . . with just the right amount of cockiness 😉 He’s perfection. And I think this is noncontroversial opinion everyone would agree with lol.

And maybe you do or don’t agree with this part, but I feel Anakin’s appearance was 💯 open to interpretation, and I think that’s GREAT. This character means so much to so many people, and there is never a way to satisfy everyone when it comes to storytelling. Everyone had/has different opinions of how this should’ve been handled. Was Anakin a Force ghost? Was the entire encounter all in Ahsoka’s head? Was Anakin something else entirely? Was he Vader? Maybe you have an answer to this question and you are certain in your theory – that’s awesome. I think that’s the way it should be. We get to “make things the way we want them to be” WITH CANON! 👏🏻 I am not yet certain of what my own theory is. I’ve watched it four times, and I am still processing it all. One thing for sure, I’m glad the WBW was involved. Again, if you know of my preferred way to ‘fix-it’ then you know what that means to me 🥰

I think I’m done 🫣 I just needed to release these feelings! And I feel we are so blessed. I still can’t believe this really happened. And I am so thankful to get to share in the joy with all of you 💖 Okay! I think I’m ready to talk now if y’all want to talk! 🤭

#ahsoka spoilers #a barma take?#that hasn't been done in the history of tumblr #hope you aren't insulted #this is basically a review I guess?#ANAKIN!#FEELINGS!#AHHH!#I love the feelings

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aysekira · 9 months

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Being a cdrama fan is frankly exhausting, you can't just enjoy the creativity and stories bc there are a 100 behind the scenes considerations and changes happening all the time. I know most industries don't respect writers but chinese dramas take the cake, they're the least respected when their work is the most important, it's why so many dramas end up being horrible. And these new regulations are so frustrating because some shows need 50 or 60 or 70 episodes, nirvana in fire joy of life ming lan, already a lot of shows are cutting their episodes so they air at the same time instead of waiting 12 months, how the hell are you going to tell a 60 or 55 episode story in 40 or less episodes? They keep adding these insane rules as if they're trying to kill the industry outright, you can't make harem shows, you can't make queer shows even if they're sanitized to high heaven, lord forbid couples have sex or sometimes even kiss like normal people, you can't have reincarnation which is why we end up with so many shitty rushed xianxia endings they can't give us more. Sometimes you find something so great it makes all the mess worth it but the way they're going they're not going to leave room for even the tiny tiny slivers, the 0.01% of dramas that are great that somehow manage to make it through the cracks despite their best efforts. It's clear their is something very wrong with the industry when they make 400 dramas a year yet not even 40 of them are good, it's truly the wild west out there bc most of these dramas you'd watch them and think they're money laundering schemes bc no way this actually got made. They need to stop caring about pretty faces and paying them insane amounts of money and start hiring good writers but I'm not going to hold my breath... Sorry for the rant I just had to let this out lmao

let it all out anon: this is a safe space :) i wholly agree with everything you said since i'm a firm believer in that while you could aim for a very tight, cohesive&coherent writings (which i assume would be the aim of this rule); there's only so much you could tell before that compression ceiling hits& all hell broke loose in terms of story telling.

to add more to your examples, i cackled in imagining just how absurd it would be if NEF, rebel princess, secret advisors, three kingdoms cut down to those limits at it might result in qi heng being non existent (minglan), advisors being a singular advisor instead& more. and those, like your examples are the kind of dramas that (similar to the examples mentioned) needed the length to fully flesh out their dimensions.

i do not know what to say to make you feel better about it but my personal approach (esp recently) is just to have no hope about it, zero expectations-- then if it turns out to be good; it'll be a very nice surprise (personal example: currently airing LYF. i expected nothing&even side eyeing it a bit before it airs because well uh the casts&promos shown didn't tickle my fancy one bit back then-- and now it's practically my current obsession)& if it's not then it'll be just a passerby of a show and no investment (time/interest) was made whatsoever :)

or may i suggest venturing more to kdramaland as they have all sorts of good ones recently/currently airing (19th life, my dearest& lovely liar to name a few)& i heard from a very trusted source (@dangermousie) they have quite the stack waiting in line to air some of which you could see from the poll here: https://www.tumblr.com/dangermousie/725177465537003520/the-sageukcostume-kdrama-you-are-most-looking?source=share

you have a good day now anon :)

#random bits

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darcyolsson · 6 months

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In the shadowhunter universe i think the circle has the most amount of fucked up relationships. Like everybodys got complex outside the norm relationships with at least two other members. The circle is so fascinating to me. The most popular and charismatic guy is evil and the few people who figure it out takes forever to do so. People are properly rebelling against their parents. They make themself a big menace as teenagers. And on the other side youve got the downworlders reaction to this. Tessa and Magnus are heartbroken. They give up on Stephen. There is so much going on but we are given so little.

YEAH i think the circle is such an underexplored aspect of the tsc universe!! i highly doubt we'll ever get any sort of series or even a full side book dedicated to them but the tidbits of info we do have from the short stories are so fascinating. it honestly brought some much-needed nuance to the tmi parents, bc even though we do have a few details about what went down (like the circle originally not being anti-downworlders, but sort of gradually moving in that direction after valentine's father died) i did feel like tmi left me wondering a bit how they all ended up as a part of an extremist group.

my favourite thing about the circle is that, at least at the start, they all have very similar views to the tmi gang: that the clave is corrupt in many ways (objectively true), and needs to be reformed. especially in tftsa it's a statement we hear simon say over and over and over again and i just LOVE that juxtaposition, the implication that if a different kind of person had gotten a hold of simon & clary and even the rest of the gang they could've ended up exactly like their parents.

and tbh, i just love reading about the circle and their drama and misery, lol. i love it when characters act really terribly i love it when characters manipulate & get manipulated and are then eaten alive by guilt. the evil we love is a gem, just robert experiencing flop after flop and ruining everyone's lives. and then becoming miserable for the rest of his life because of it. genuinely very fun. i think cc does morally gray characters very well (when she wants to, which is rarely </3) and i just love to watch miserable people be miserable what can i say!!

also, so true what you said about fucked up relationships. the circle didnt fit into the big love web i made for all of tsc because there's nothing linking them to any of the tmi/tid/tda/etc characters (thank god lmfao), but behold, i made them their own tiny love dodecahedron for funsies:

is it more contained than the 74-people big tsc love web*? perhaps. is it any less insane? absolutely not.

*which, by the way, misses many people, as i've found out in my tmi and novella reread. but they dont fit on there so i'll have to recreate it in its entirety if i want everyone to fit, which is not something i want to spend my time doing, because i am insane but not that insane

#looking forward to reading gotsm and wanting to throw up bc of all that happened to céline #literally a grooming victim whose entire life was controlled by valentine including the false story of her death 👍#tsc #the circle #tmi #vic reads tftsa

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gizkasparadise · 11 months

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hi!! i love your taste in dramas and i was wondering if you have any more villain romance recs, specifically cdrama recs? i finished lbfad and tiger & rose already and im currently watching twisted fate of love (and LOVING it hehe)

yay i love villain romances!! gonna include villains and villain-lites! my favorites on this list are goodbye my princess and arthdal chronicles for villain main leads and love and redemption, monarch industry, empress ki, extraordinary you, chicago typewriter, and bridal mask/gaksital for villainy second leads!

cdrama: villain is the main lead

the ultimate villain romance for me is goodbye my princess. the male lead is fucking horrendous but compelling and it's a tragedy from start to finish. don't watch if you want healthy relationships, someone changing for the better through the power of love, or a happy ending. do watch if you're in the mood to just get fucked up and see gorgeous costumes and scenery while doing so (also my favorite cdrama ost!). romance of tiger and rose is kind of a romcom parody of this one, too!

the legends is a nice sort of gender flip-- the female lead is basically a hot shit, overpowered demon and the male lead is a gentle guy trying to do bad all on his own because he's full of heart eyes. there's also a secondary antagonist who has a thing for the female lead, so double villainy!

word of honor. i have not finished this one, but one of the male leads def fits this bill!

the rise of phoenixes. not really a villain ML, exactly, but he's very machiavellian and schemey so if you liked the lead in twisted fate of love, you'd DEFINITELY like him (i need to finish this drama!!!)

...till the end of the moon. which i dont think i recommend, but feel compelled to mention. here's the deal: the middle arc, like eps 19-30ish? fucking perfection! the bookends on either side? dont do nearly as much. the end? i dont know her (literally, i didnt bother with the last ep). idk try it out if you're starving for costume villain love trapped in a masochism tango, but....watch some of the other dramas on this list first

cdrama: villainy second lead and/or main antagonist is in love with the lead

love and redemption and dear god you'll need a stress ball

monarch industry/the rebel princess has shades of this

prince of lan ling

kdrama: villain is the main lead

arthdal chronicles has a male lead having a villainous crush on the female lead (and they are VERY ship baity), as well as the second male and female leads both being villains and in love. i love iiiit, but be warned it ends on a cliffhanger and s2 isnt out yet

cheese in the trap. the male lead is not a great dude. a lot of people dont like this drama, but i love it (aside from a weak last ep)

everyone's just a little bit shitty in bloody heart, to include the male lead

the male lead in little women will have you guessing from start to finish if you're a clown for trusting him or not

who the villain is is kind of a rotating door in the series, but the main male lead in moon lovers: scarlet heart ryeo definitely spends time in anti-hero land

que sera sera and when a man's in love/man in love are older dramas with male leads who are definitely Questionable (the former is described as a bastard in the synopsis and the latter is an ex-gangster trying to go legit but not quite able to shake the gangster tendencies). neither story is a traditional romance, and there's a lot of content warnings to be mindful of (lots of slapping and hitting in the former, cheating in the second [and probably some slapping])

depending on your POV (or the point of the story) the main love interest from empress ki could qualify! and then there's a support character who's a straight up villain that's got a crush

i dont want to tell you anything because spoilers! but there's flavors of this with king in love/the king loves

kdrama: villainy second lead and/or primary antagonist is in love with the lead

extraordinary you

mr. sunshine (more anti-hero than villain, but you'll get that flavor with dong mae aka my most intense SLS ever)

dali and the cocky prince

the princess' man

tale of nokdu

chicago typewriter (more villainous crush than full on love line)

bridal mask/gaksital (the male lead also starts out as a villain in this one!)

from now on, showtime! features a villainous crush and i wish the backstory eps were their own drama because i loved them

#asks!#cdrama #kdrama

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pindagreat · 5 months

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I finished Baldur's Gate 3 last night and wow. Really good game! It could get a little overwhelming with the sheer amount of content. I needed guides a lot more than I would have liked, but I loved the story. The entire cast of playable characters is great, but I do find the party size of 4 too restrictive. I just stuck to using the same party of my Paladin Tav, Gale, Shadowheart and Karlach(my wife). I would have appreciated some sort of sidekick system where inactive party members can provide some sort of passive buff to an assigned party member. This way even characters the player doesn't use can have out of combat conversations, which are fantastic, as well as being able to participate in story cutscenes. It would also be nice to swap my party around in a menu instead of talking to party members individually to change around the party.

On the subject of the party, here are some thoughts on the party members (Full game spoilers):

Note that I went for the righteous choice at pretty much every turn

Gale is a fantastic little goober. The thing about him eating magic items in act 1 was hilarious. Tim Downie's performance was perfect for the character at every turn. Gale takes himself seriously to the point of both gripping drama and hilarious blunders. He was a mainstay of my party not just for having a good spell list, but he was a great guy. I love the arc I got for him, where he learns to accept that he doesn't have to keep ascending to greater heights, and becomes a teacher.

I thought when I met Shadowheart that I would hate her. I kept her around in the first few hours of act 1 because she was the first party member you got and also a cleric, which I knew would be useful for the entire game. I found her and Lae'zel bickering annoying at first, but it progressively got more and more entertaining. Then they actually tried to kill eachother, which gave great insight to both characters. Every bit of Shadowheart's quest made me love her more, from facing the gauntlet of Shar and rebelling against her to killing her captors and letting her parents go with their love in her heart. Also spirit guardian + boots of speed is goated holy shit

Karlach is amazing. She's goals and also my wife. From the moment I saw fanart of her, I knew she would be my favorite character. Her narrative of trying to escape from her past and it catching up with her struck a chord with me. Trying to fix her engine was a great conflict, and I love the ending where Karlach and my Tav Nadia go to Avernus to fix her engine once and for all. She's a ray of sunshine, and I love every second of joy in her eyes. I loved finding all the best equipment I could for her, with her getting the Balduran giantslayer for the final battle + amulet of health + being hasted. So much fun

Astarion is such a gremlin. I loved helping him kill his abuser and save all the other vampire spawn. I didn't use him very much, so he was kinda just comic relief to me, but he's still a great character even if you don't wind up going into his deepest depths.

Lae'zel was in a similar boat to Shadowheart, where I was put off by her in the beginning, but she won me over. I love a narrative where a character rejects a supposed truth they were brought up believing, and Lae'zel's crusade to kill Vlaakith was amazing. Gith lore was a corner of dnd lore I was more familiar with going in to the game from listening to Rolling With Difficulty, and that made Lae'zel's arc all the sweeter.

Wyll was the origin character that compelled me the least, but he was still cool. I don't have much to say about him.

Halsin and the quest to heal the shadowcurse are some all time favorite quests in this game. I love the ending he gets where he becomes the guardian of all the refugee children.

Jaehira was kinda just there. She was fun in the few interactions I had with her, but otherwise eh. I'm glad other people get more out of her than I do

The Emporer is a fascinating character. He is extremely set in his ways. He is unwilling to consider the idea that Orpheus won't try to kill the party because he thinks Orpheus would kill him for what he's done. This uncompromising nature is why he killed Ansur, and why he will betray you if you don't give him the netherstones and let him kill Orpheus.

Orpheus himself was a little underwhelming since he came in at the 11th hour, but I liked convincing him to live. I headcanon that if you convince him to live he meets Omeluum and those two learn from eachother.

Also the dead three's chosen were fun antagonists. I loved being jumpscared by JK Simmons when he showed up. I only kinda remembered that he would be in this game.

I love a ton of the changes and additions to the format of dnd 5e. The 1/short rest abilities make martials have a little more depth, which is a great boon. One minor thing I wish they got rid of from 5e is that you can't cast spells while raging. I would have loved to get more use out of Karlach's smites.

Instant short rests is something I love. It makes the game flow well and lets the characters that rely on short rests stay good. I'm honestly planning on adopting that in some form when I start dming.

One gripe I have is that the game pretends as if resurrection magic isn't a thing in the story. Each character starts the game with a couple scrolls of revivify, so I don't understand why you can't be resurrecting NPCs. That would save a lot of hassle.

All in all, I love Baldur's Gate 3. It's the perfect game for someone who loves RPGs and going for most of the sidequests. The story is engaging, and I don't have any gripes that ruin the game. It's mostly just things I would change to fit my own tastes more. 10/10

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #karlach #shadowheart #lae'zel #gale dekarios #wyll ravengard #baldur's gate iii #asterion #the emperor bg3

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some-pers0n · 7 months

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Oh boy do I have my *hot* take(s) :)

Sunny should've gotten (better) princess treatment

Nightwings should've allied with the Icewings and then betrayed them in the climax of the war(when one or two of the sisters keel)

Glory should've been more fiery like Tsunami and not played into the 'lazy rainwing' troupe, and shouldn't have had her heritage discovered the way it was/if at all

Morrowseer was (mostly) right to act the way he did

Darkstalker shouldn't have been so *teehee nobody knows I'm evil except for one convenient dragon*

Sending the *Icewing* Talons of Peace member for a skywing egg was actually the worst decision(from the prologue in book 1 iirc)

Scavengers should've pulled off another big stunt in the first/second arc, maybe not killing a queen, but somebody important and framing it on a dragon to ignite the post-/war

Starflight should've been a hybrid (preferably 1/4 or 1/2 icewing for *drama*)

Blister is the coolest but worst sister and deserved to suffer more losses(maybe having someone close to her die)(if she could've had actual friends to begin with)

More sandwings should've become outraged at Thorn (particularly Burn followers)(bc they're already kinda kookoo)

Kestrel should've lived longer even though her end was a badass plot twist

Ruby's story was so foolish, no one could possibly be that ditzy except maybe Blaze

Dream visitors (dreams) should've been more chaotic and been harder to reach the dragons conscious

Dream visitors should've failed at least once in a daze of forgetting dreams or "nah that's not real" but sparking paranoia in those trying to forget, so much that it leads them to foil someone's plans, (like scarlet and the assassin stuff)(it fails anyway "but I didn't believe it to begin with" ...)

Corals sons should've absolutely despised her and helped the DoD

A dragon should've escaped Scarlets towering prisons and rebelled with a few skywing traitors and failed; to raise tensions and lower the others hopes, to make the DoDs escape more fulfilling (cause the nightwings robbing starflight for the night was too anticlimactic)(also some skywing guard[or crazed prisoner like gills but not him] should've tried to fight the nightwings)

Webs should've died over Dunes

Masterminds whole jig was kinda based (expiramenting bad and all yeah but it was done really well)(like the telling of it all not like he did the expiraments well)

Battle winners daughter is super lame, there should've been an attempted assassination on her as revenge for something either Battlewinner did or bc some nightwing just didn't like her)

Grandeur should've been really into cooking or just big fancy ass feasts

Moorhen should've had a big tragic background or beef with Glacier( or both, having Moorhens best closest family/friend murked by the icewings and she doesn't know why)

Coral should've been more clingy to Tsunami

The false DoD shouldn't have been so lively as if they weren't treated like the second option their whole lives

Tear me to pieces. I actually wanna see how bad they are, I'm sure I've also got more lying around, though I should probably reread the books I have so I can both find more wack takes, adjust my headcanons & smthn else I forgot as I was about to write just now

[I've basically only read the first 10ish and only own like 12 books, I was waiting to get the last 3 before reading the next arc]

Hoping I got these right as *takes* and not like theorizing or smthn

Also so sorry omg this is so long

Oh boy time to Read Alla Dat.

Oh I love NightWing/IceWing drama. That's a cool idea

Morrowseer is a cool villain and he doesn't get the attention he deserves. I love him so much. He's one of, if not the best villain in the series.

Absolutely genius move. Now Hvitur's dead. Thanks Nautilus.

The thing with scavengers to me is that they aren't inherently a bad idea. I actually think it's pretty cool to have humans be seen as a pest of sorts by these intelligent dragons. I would've loved if scavengers were more involved, albeit not in a "We are living creatures too and deserve to not be eaten-" shut up you walking strip of beef jerky and let me chew on your bones.

OhohOHOHOHOhh!! I like that idea! Hybrid Starflight's cool..

Blister was literally the Worst queen by far. I literally cannot imagine anybody making a good argument for her at all.

Imagine a gang leader becoming the queen after a 20 year war lmao. I'd be pissed to all hell.

I'm Diseased over the word "foolish" here. I'm in love. I can't think of any other way to describe her now. Ruby is just a foolish creature.

GOD I WISH DREAM VISITORS WERE COOL LIKE THAT!! GRAHHHHH I WANNA WRITE ABOUT THEM NOW!! I love the idea of dreams and playing around with them. I love the idea of a character seeing somebody who's trying to tell them: "Hey I'm the real person and you're in a dream" and going: "Uh-huh yeah right buddy". My dreams are kinda wacky and I think it would be fun to take inspiration from the particularly labyrinth-like places I sometimes get thrown into, with corridors that lead into other places past and Dream Logic comes into play. Dreams are so cool man...

Regional Webs hater here. Hard agree. I love Dune. Dune is the Guy of all time and I love him with all my heart. Webs deserves to never have his name be uttered ever.

Mastermind IS silly in my mind. I need to have at least one chaotic sciencey type who is perfectly willing to experiment on people. Mastermind is just that. What a guy. I wish he wasn't trapped in the Pit for all of time though.

Greatness is such wasted potential it hurts oh my god.

Grandeur grows pot.

Ohhhhhhh OOOHhHHhhHH I love that idea,,,

Literally if I was in Fatespeaker's position I too would be hopeless and miserable. I think she's just coping with it in a certain way that I can't really comprehend.

#ask #wof

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lia-land · 21 days

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House of Sky and Breath

4.5/5 stars

*Spoilers by House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas.

I should mention that I’m obviously aware that these books are meant to be basically fairy porn with a plot and not analyzed as if it’s Shakespeare, but then this blog wouldn't exist. SJM has become one of my favourite authors and this book is one of my new favourites, but I also love analysing, so let's get into it.

Do Danika’s secrets ever end? This series feels like Pretty Little Liars at this point and Danika is Alison.

The prologue was very long and boring. I can see how it was relevant for the rest of the book, but while reading it, it just dragged on. Not a very strong start. It could have been shorter.

Ember seems like such a toxic parent. I’ve yet to enjoy a single interaction between her and Bryce. I understand that she is protective, but she’s outright rude and brings things up at the most inappropriate times. For example, at the ballet. I don’t think she was supposed to seem like this, but that’s how her character has come across so far.

My favorite line from this series so far is “Can we go back to how the Prince of the Chasm was sitting on my lap?” which is actually even funnier when it turned out to be Rigelus. He really just showed up, dropped a bunch of important info, caused some drama, and left. He seems a bit like a copy of a certain High Lord from A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I will not digress as to not spoil that series. My Aidas (I suppose Rigelus?) and Bryce ship continues to thrive. Him dropping the info about Cormac being a secret agent was gold. Although, somehow, Cormac got less interesting after that. SJM has a tendency of turning ‘evil’ characters into good ones and making them boring in the process. I miss the “see you at the altar” Cormac. He was more fun to read about than rebel Cormac. Just to add, I listened to parts of this book on audible and the narrator gave him a thick Scottish accent that I could not stand because it felt so out of place and I’ll probably never stop associating Cormac with it, so maybe I’m biased.

Strangely enough, the ending of this book reminded me of Divergent. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book where the plot leads to the city/world being some sort of experiment or having some specific purpose. I didn’t expect this from SJM, but I’m really liking the direction so far. Hel actually being good was such a great twist. I think a lot of why I have enjoyed this series so far is because unlike ACOTAR and Throne of Glass, social media isn’t full of spoilers yet. I’m getting to experience most of the story with no idea of what will actually happen. I did know that Aidas was actually Rigelus, but it was still interesting to see how it would end up that way.

It was way too convenient that Ithan and Bryce found the college papers when they did. What if she’d found them a year ago? Or the year before that? Or never at all? Unless there’s some bigger force at play, this was far too specific and was lazy writing to drive the plot forward. Ithan just happened to want to have a little sword fight with himself and breaks that specific table? Conveniently when they’d hit a dead end on the emails? The ‘explanation’ is “Urd must have sent her back to the apartment just now. For this.” No, it wasn’t the Urd. It was just lazy writing. It could have made more sense if these papers were discovered in book 1 and Bryce just wouldn’t have thought anything about them until now. Unless later on it turns out that the Asteri or Gods or some bigger force has been guiding these characters into specific situations in order to advance a specific agenda, this was lazy. But I would consider using that as an excuse to also be lazy.

I also had to roll my eyes at the mystic being the Fendyr heir. That just felt like it was thrown in for the sake of being a plot twist and making Ithan’s character have somewhat of a storyline. I actually don’t see the point of Ithan’s character at all to be honest. We’ve had him in two books now, but for what reason other than his one liners? Shoutout to “that sounds medically dangerous!” I assume he will finally have some purpose in the final book, but so far, he’s been in two 800 page books and I have no idea why. Unless we count the very convenient breaking of the table so that Bryce could find those documents. In that case, thank god for Ithan! Where would the story be if he hadn’t talked to that journalist, pissed off Sabine, got kicked out of the pack, ended up at Bryce’s apartment, played with the sword on Bryce’s coffee table, and broken it to reveal the papers. Personally, I feel like this story could have been exactly where it is now without Ithan’s character.

I can’t decide if I like Tharion or not. He gives me the ick sometimes, like why are you putting your bare feet on someone else’s coffee table !!! Good thing the coffee table broke a few chapters later. I feel like I should dislike Tharion because he’s quite awful to Sathia and literally admitted to lying about agreeing to marry her just to sleep with her. He also ditched her at the mating ball to go and fuck some shifter in the gardens. Him kissing Bryce while she was teleporting was also weird. I actually think he’s the closest character to the men I tend to be attracted to and then look back and think what could I have possibly seen in him? The answer lives in that part of my brain that tries to justify the behavior by thinking that Tharion is a good guy deep down and is just misunderstood and had to stay in the engagement because the alternative was the wrath of the River Queen. Then I’m thinking he put himself in that situation and deserved it. And then I’m thinking maybe he didn’t deserve such harsh consequences. I go back and forth about how I feel about him. He’s exactly the type of guy you’d have a one night stand with and then fall for and try to change while you ignore his red flags because you think he’s the one and that his confidence is hot, only to realize later that you wasted your time and he’s actually just a massive ick. He pretty much just thinks with his dick, but I really enjoy reading about his character and I find him more interesting than Cormac and Hunt. There’s a lot of potential for him to grow as a character and I hope we see that in the next book.

I have to admit that I have no clue what Sunball is and I just assume it’s baseball. I didn’t pay attention to it in book 1 because I didn’t think it would come up as often as it does and now I’m too lazy to go back and find it’s description. This applies to a lot of my world building knowledge in this series. I’ve only recently noticed that CBD and CCB are not the same thing. No clue what the difference between Lunathion and Crescent City are. Confused about how the humans are still at war with the Asteri if they’re meant to be super powerful? Are the Asteri purposely letting it continue so that “the Vanir have something to rule over” or was this never explained? I don’t even really know who the humans are at war with to be fair. Is it even the Asteri? There was so much of an info dump at the start of book 1 that it all got muddled. SJM knows how to world build well so I don’t know why it was done differently in this series. I love the detail of this world and it’s general vibe, but it could have been introduced better. For example, has it been explained yet why Fury was at the Summit? What does Jesiba actually do? There are things that I don’t know if I forgot from the world building info dump or if we’re purposely not meant to know yet. The problem with this is that I can’t google it because it might be a spoiler until after I’ve finished the series, but it could also be something that I should know and just skimmed over, so it’s a cycle. I’d especially appreciate a map of the entire world, rather than just CC. Additionally, all three books have been released at the time of my reading, so I’m reading this series back to back, but I can’t imagine how I would have kept up if I had to wait at least a year between books because I definitely would have forgotten most of it. When Rigelus asked Bryce if she knows what the star on her chest is and she said “let’s assume I know nothing”… I felt seen.

I did know prior to starting this series that there was an ACOTAR crossover, but I wish I didn’t know that because that would have probably been the best cliffhanger ever. I don’t know how people waited so long for book 3 after reading that.

tldr; I love this book for what it is: an easy to read romantasy book with hot sex and a fast paced plot. It wasn’t written to be picked apart like I’ve done here, but I tend not to include the things that I liked in these reviews as much as what I thought could be improved. This was one of the most immersive books I’ve read and I’m actually enjoying it as much as I enjoyed ACOTAR, which is very high praise from me.

#sarah j maas #book review #crescent city #house of sky and breath #house of earth and blood #bryce quinlan #hunt athalar #ruhn danaan #house of flame and shadow #ithan holstrom #danika fendyr #tharion ketos

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